Yesterday the students of our group

Yesterday the students of our group came to the University to listen to a lecture on muscles. The lecture was attended by all of us. The lecture was delivered by Prof. Smirnov. To listen to it was very interesting. Prof. Smirnov was the first to tell us about the anatomical terms.

The names of all the muscles in the body and all other anatomical terms were established at three Congresses in Basel [‘ba:zэl], Jena [‘jeina:] and Paris. In 1895 the Basel Nomina Anatomica ¹ was introduced; in 1935 it was greatly changed at the Congress of Anatomists in Jena. But the anatomical terms which were established at that Congress were not used in the USSR. In 1955 the IV International Federal Congress of Anatomists in Paris established new universal anatomical terms, the so-called Paris Nomina Anatomica.

In his lecture Prof. Smirnov said that the body was composed of about 600 skeletal muscles. The students learned that in the adult about 35%- 40% (per cent) of the body weight was formed by the muscles. According to the basic parts of the skeleton all the muscles were divided into the muscles of the trunk, head, and extremities.

When Prof. Smirnov spoke about the form of the muscles he said that all the muscles were divided into three basic groups: long, short and wide muscles; the free extremities were formed by the long muscles; wide muscles lay on the trunk; the walls of the body cavities were formed by wide muscles.

Some muscles were called according to the structure of their fibers, for example radiated muscles; others according to their uses, for example extensors (разгибающие мышцы) or according to their direction, for example oblique (косая).

When Prof. Smirnov spoke about the structure of the muscles he said that the muscles were formed by a mass of muscle cell, the muscular fiber were connected together by connective tissue, the blood vessels and the nerves were in the muscles.

Great research work was carried out by many scientists to determine the functions of the muscles. Three basic methods of study were used: experimental work on animals, the study of the muscles on a living human body and on the corpse.



Their work helped to establish that the muscles were the active agents of motion (движение) and contraction.