514 EDWARD B. MEIGS 



This difficulty was overcome, -as far as possible, by leaving 

 the two tissues first for a considerable time in Ringer, and trans- 

 ferring them to 50 per cent Ringer only after they had undergone 

 a number of weighings in Ringer at the same intervals as were 

 subsequently to be used in the 50 per cent Ringer. Figure 3 shows 

 the results of an experiment in which, as it happened, the two 

 kinds of muscle, under the influence of the frequent weighings in 

 Ringer, reached a constant weight which in both cases was 

 between 7 and 8 per cent less than their original weight. 



As figure 3 shows, the curves of swelling of the two tissues in 

 50 per cent Ringer are quite different from each other. During 

 the first eight minutes after transfer to the hypotonic solution the 

 striated muscle swells five times as rapidly as the smooth muscle; 

 the swelling curve of the former is more or less exponential in 

 character while that of the latter tends toward being a straight line. 



I have carried out a number of experiments of this sort in which 

 the detail has been much varied. The muscles have come from 

 large and small individuals of leopard, green and bull-frogs. 

 Sometimes the piece of stomach has been larger and sometimes the 

 sartorius. The surface exposed by the two pieces in relation to 

 the volume has not differed very widely, but was probably greater 

 in the case of the stomach muscle. This ought to have caused a 

 more rapid early swelling in the case of the stomach muscle, if 

 other conditions had been the same. In one case the swelling 

 curve of a sartorius in 50 per cent Ringer was studied after its 

 fibers had been cut across. The results did not differ materially 

 from those obtained with the uncut sartorii; for, though cutting 

 across the fibers of striated muscle causes it to swell slowly in 

 Ringer's solution, this swelling is too slow to markedly alter the 

 course of swelling in the first haff hour after transference from 

 Ringer to 50 per cent Ringer. 



In all these experiments the results were essentially the same — 

 a fairly regular curve for the striated muscle rising rapidly in the 

 early stages, and a more irregular curve for the smooth muscle 

 much slower in the early stages and tending to be a straight line. 



Figure 4 shows the results of an experiment in general similar 

 to that shown in figure 3. 



