Elements of Myology (Elementorum Myologiae Specimen)

which are continuous with the tendons, form oblique angles with the transverse planes E D, A F, while the lateral planes E B, C F are straight and at right angles to the extreme planes A C, B D, and to the transverse planes E D, A F. I have expressed this figure larger than in nature, so that its planes might be seen more distinctly.

Three difficulties in the System of flesh.

Three difficulties can be raised here: first, that I have called the extremities of the flesh, which are continuous with the tendons, planar; second, that I have assumed the lateral planes to be right-angled to the other four planes; third, that I have desired the transverse planes to be inclined toward the extreme planes.

Response to all at once.

I could have satisfied everyone with a single response, by saying that I am describing here only the regular fiber, the standard for all others, which would be as permissible for me as for all those others who explain the difficulties that occur in composite and less orderly things by way of orderly and simple ones. But, so that I may not appear to have brought anything forward without reason, I will respond to each objection separately, bringing experience as the foundation of my statements.

Response to the first difficulty regarding the extreme planes.

Therefore, as regards the extremities of the flesh, I remember that I once saw, in the foot of an African Rooster, flesh that was, by some disease, freed from the tendinous expansion, where the extremities of the flesh appeared to me flat in the same way that the middle of the flesh appears flat when dissected transversely. But even in cooked flesh, where the tendon has separated from the muscle, the extremities of the flesh appear flat.

As to the lateral planes, I confess that flesh is thin