Elements of Myology (Elementorum Myologiae Specimen)

of a specimen of myology; if it does not displease the public, I shall, given the opportunity, undertake the entire history of the muscles to be reformed according to these new principles; since there is no muscle about which something peculiar cannot be brought forward, and indeed there are very many about which but little has been said until now. But also, the true structure of the bones, not yet attempted by anyone, will become at once easy and manifest through the continuation of the tendons according to these observations.

I have already desired many times to buckle down seriously to that labor: but I never wished to attribute so much to myself that I would believe what pleased me would necessarily be accepted by others. Blind love for one's offspring is a saying in the old proverb, and it is established by frequent experience that what has greatly pleased the authors themselves has often displeased everyone else.

Ancient system of muscles.

Many have hitherto explained the structure of the muscle using the figure placed here, both philosophers and anatomists.

A diagram representing the traditional or "ancient" concept of a muscle's structure. It shows a spindle-shaped (fusiform) body composed of several longitudinal fibers that converge at both ends toward the tendons.

I shall say nothing of it for the present, except that it is entirely unknown to Nature, however well known to the authors. It has seemed safest to me to represent the structure of the muscles in the way in which I find it in many simple muscles,