56 QUARTERLY CHRONICLE. 
leon. Dr. Cameron, of Monghyr, kindly sent me down six 
of these curious creatures some time since. ‘They have one 
after the other been killed and injected with Beale’s blue so- 
lution, and the subsequent steps he describes in preparing 
tissues for examination under the higher powers of the mi- 
croscope have been strictly attended to. (Vide Dr. Beale’s 
book, ‘How to Work with the Microscope,’ third edition, 
p- 204.) The striped muscle of the Vertebrata is composed 
of one or more bundles of fibres, the whole being enclosed in 
connective tissue known as the sheath of the muscle. Nu- 
merous septa dip into the substance of the muscle from this 
sheath, so as to divide it into compartments of an irregular 
shape and size. Each of these is filled by a bundle of mus- 
cular fibres; the vessels and nerves ramify in the connective 
tissue of the septa, and are thus brought into immediate 
contact with the muscular fibres. 
“Tf a bundle of muscular fibres is carefully examined under 
a low power, it will be found to consist of numerous fibres— 
the ‘ultimate fibres of muscle.’ Each ultimate fibre runs 
continuously from one end of the fibre to the other end, and 
is attached at either extremity to a fibrous structure, which 
usually assumes the form of a tendon; consequently the 
length of the ultimate fibre depends upon the length of the 
muscle, in the case of the sartorious being perhaps upwards 
of two feet, and in the stapedius a few lines in length. The 
diameter of the ultimate fibre varies according to the degree 
of development of its contractile element, as I shall presently 
explain. After a muscle has been kept in glycerine for a 
time we may easily isolate a bundle of these muscular fibres ; 
the tissues being gently torn apart, a few ultimate fibres may 
be examined under a fiftieth of an inch glass. 
‘* Each ultimate muscular fibre will be found to be encased 
in a sheath of homogeneous tissue, called the sarcolemma, 
which is very apt to be thrown into perpendicular elevations 
and depressions, so that it is a common occurrence to see the 
ultimate fibre streaked by dark lines running in the direction 
of the length of the fibre, produced by the wrinkled surface 
of the sarcolemma. We may also notice elongated masses of 
germinal matter (coloured by the carmine we have used in 
making the preparation) scattered at pretty regular intervals 
throughout the sarcolemma. They are elongated in the di- 
rection of the length of the muscle, and are situated either 
above or below, or it may be on either side of the fibre in the 
substance of the sarcolemma itself. No doubt it is from these 
comparatively large masses of germinal matter that not only 
the sarcolemma, but the contractile tissue within it, is formed. 
—— 
