36 H. E. JORDAN 
styles. Sarcostyles occurring in groups, held together by the 
telophragmata, are apparently fortified to some extent against the 
distorting effects of the hypotonic solution, and so maintain a 
relatively even contour. That our interpretation of the sar- 
costyles of figures 29 and 31 as swollen relaxed fibers is correct, 
may be proved by transferring such sarcostyles to a 2 per cent 
sodium chlorid (hypertonic) solution, where they return to a 
condition very similar to that seen in Ringer’s solution. 
Instead of having the special advantage claimed for it, Rol- 
let’s technic is, in fact, very unfavorable, since it leads to dis- 
tortion and the resulting confusion in interpreting results. It 
reveals nothing that cannot be seen almost as well in unstained 
fresh material, nor anything that cannot be better seen in 
aleohol-fixed and iron-hematoxylin-stained preparations, and it 
is inferior to Toison’s solution in which the fresh tissue is vitally 
stained in a non-distorting isotonic solution. 
The functionally contracted fiber is shown in figure 33. This 
drawing was made from a fresh preparation in Ringer’s solution. 
It corresponds with Meig’s illustration of a contracted sarco- 
style of the fly’s wing muscle (fig. 8), and with fixed contracted 
fibers in stained section (fig. 44). Similar fibers may be seen in 
Toison’s solution, and occasionally also in preparations after 
Rollet’s technic. It should be noted that the sarcostyle in this 
condition of full contraction is not beaded, and that the con- 
traction band in places appears clearly double. Sarcostyles in 
the contracted condition can be readily obtained in fresh and 
fixed preparations by drawing a sharp needle transversely across 
a group of living sarcostyles. The mechanical stimulus evi- 
dently is sufficient to induce full contraction. 
Figures 34, 35, and 36 represent sarcostyles from the wing 
muscle of the elater beetle, Alaus oculatus. This muscle was fixed 
in 95 per cent alcohol and stained with iron-hematoxylin. The 
sarcostyles differ from the wasp’s sarcostyles only in being slightly 
coarser. They illustrate two important points regarding this 
type of sarcostyle especially well. The sarcostyle of figure 34 is 
one of a small group, at an early stage of contraction, the median 
