LISTER, ON INVOLUNTARY MUSCULAR FIBRE. 7 
tiful ever made in anatomy; and this is now, I believe, the 
general opinion of histologists. 
Still, however, there are those who are not yet satisfied 
upon this subject. In Miiller’s ‘ Archives’ for 1854, is a 
paper by Dr. J. F. Mazonn of Kiew, in which the author 
expresses his belief that the muscular fibre-cells of Kolliker 
are created by the tearing of the tissue in preparing it, and 
denies the existence of nuclei in unstriped muscle altogether ; 
but he gives so very obscure an account of his own ideas re- 
specting the tissue, that his objections seem to me to carry 
very little weight, more especially as the appearances which 
he describes require, according to his own account, several 
days’ maceration of the muscle in acid for their development. 
In June of the present year (1856), Professor Ellis, of Uni- 
versity College, London, communicated to the Royal Society 
of London a paper entitled “ Researches into the Nature of 
Involuntary Muscular Fibre.’ In the abstract given in the 
‘ Proceedings’ of the Society, recently issued, we are in- 
formed that, “ having been unable to confirm the statements 
of Professor Kolliker respecting the cell-structure of the 
involuntary muscular fibre, the author was induced to under- 
take a series of researches into the nature of that tissue, by 
which he has been led to entertain views as to its structure 
in vertebrate animals, but more especially in man, which are 
at variance with those now generally received.” In the 
“summary of the conclusions which the author has arrived 
at,’ we find the following: “In both kinds of muscles, 
voluntary and involuntary, the fibres are long, slender, 
rounded cords of uniform width » Tn neither 
voluntary nor involuntary muscle is the fibre of the nature 
of a cell, but in both is composed of minute threads or fibrils. 
Its surface- -appearance, in both kinds of muscle, allows of the 
supposition that in both it is constructed in a similar way, 
viz., of small particles or ‘sarcous elements,’ and that a 
difference in the arrangement of these elements gives a 
dotted appearance to the involuntary, and a transverse striation 
to the voluntary fibres.” “On the addition of acetic acid, 
fusiform or rod-shaped corpuscles make their appearance in 
all muscular tissue ; these bodies, which appear to belong to 
the sheath of the fibre, approach nearest in their characters 
to the corpuscles belonging to the yellow or elastic fibres 
which pervade various other tissues; and from the apparent 
identity in nature of these corpuscles in the different textures 
in which they are found, and especially in voluntary, as com- 
pared with involuntary muscle, it is scarcely conceivable that 
in the latter case exclusively they should be the nuclei of 
oblong cells constituting the proper muscular tissue.” 
VOL. VI. c 
