REVIEWS. §3 



is not new. It has some resemblance to tlie old " cell " 

 theory before referred to, but it appears to be nearly identical 

 with that referred to by Dr. Carpenter in the following 

 extract {op. cit.) : 



" A similar delineation had previously (before 184(5) been 

 published, however, by Dr. Goodfellow (' Physiological 

 Journal,' No. iv), but his interpretation of the appearances 

 was altogether different; for he considered the dark spaces as 

 the * sarcous elements ' of Mr. Bowman, and regarded thera 

 as separately enclosed within partitions formed by internal 

 prolongations of the external investing myolemma." 



These are merely the " Muskelkastchen." Dr. Capentrer 

 continues : 



" By Mr. Erasmus Wilson, again, the appearances were 

 described as leading to the belief that two kinds of cells exist 

 in each fibrilla, a dark and a light ; a pair of light cells, 

 separated by the delicate transverse line just spoken of, being 

 interposed between each pair of dark ones " (' Manual of 

 Anatomy,' third edition, p. 162). 



Substituting the word " disc " or " body " for " cell," this 

 enumeration of the constituents of a muscle fibre agrees 

 precisely with Krause's. 



We do not quote these anticipations merely to show that 

 " there is nothing new under the sun," still less to deprecate 

 the labours of the eminent professor of Gottingen, but to 

 illustrate the assertion made just now that many phenomena 

 are truly ambiguous, and that the number of possible explana- 

 tions is, with given means of observation, limited. One 

 explanation gains currency in preference to another not only 

 by emphasizing certain features of the object, but by sup- 

 pressing or ignoring others. Nevertheless, the suppressed 

 points are certain to come to light again, and when they 

 are emphasized the dominant theory is overturned. Thus 

 the see-saw goes on, one side of the question alternately pre- 

 dominating ; though it is true each explanation, when it is 

 revived, is never revived quite in its original shape : it is 

 always more complete than in its previous state of existence. 

 Finally, some new method or improved instrument of research 

 makes it possible to explain the true and the false in each of 

 the contending theories. 



^^ hether this will be the case with regard to muscle, when 

 the views of Engelmann and Schafer come to be thoroughly 

 worked out, and whether sarcous elements are to disappear 

 as a merely provisional hypothesis, we cannot now discuss, 

 nor can we speak of Henson's "middle disc" dividing the 

 dark zone. 



