112 PRACTICAL HISTOLOGY. 



CHAPTER VI. 



MUSCULAR TISSUE. 



Preparation 1. Involuntary muscle. It is 



very easy to isolate the lanceolate cells of which this 

 tissue consists. For this purpose all that is neces- 

 sary is to place a piece of any organ containing plain 

 muscular tissue the intestine, for instance in a 

 weak solution of bichromate of potash (one part to 

 800 of water) for forty-eight hours. At the end of 

 this period of maceration, a small strip of either the 

 longitudinal or the circular muscular fibres is torn 

 off with the forceps, placed in a drop of water on a 

 slide, and separated as finely as possible with needles. 

 A cover-glass is then laid on, and the preparation is 

 carefully examined with a high power. The ends 

 and edges of the larger pieces of the tissue have a 

 somewhat ragged aspect, due to the projection from 

 them of the^ tapering ends of the fibre-cells. In 

 addition to these partially separated elements, others 

 are to be met with scattered over the preparation 

 which are wholly free, and in which all the charac- 

 teristic appearances of this tissue can be distinctly 

 made out. The elongated nucleus in the middle of 

 each riband-shaped cell can be seen in those cells 

 which lie flat, but it is at present rather indistinct. 

 It may, however, be brought more clearly into 

 view, as can also the faint longitudinal striation 

 wliich the cells exhibit, by employing one of the 

 smaller holes in the diaphragm of the microscope to 

 admit the light to the object. But to show clearly 

 the nuclei ol^the plain muscular fibre-cells, nothing 

 is better adapted than staining the tissue with a 

 weak solution of logwood-alum. It must be used 



