68 CONTRACTILE FIBRE-CELLS. 



afterwards boiled for a considerable time in water in order to 

 remove the gelatigenous connective tissue, a substance is dis- 

 solved which is precipitable both by yellow and red prussiate of 

 potash. This may be again precipitated by neutralising the acetic 

 acid ; it contains a considerable quantity of sulphur. 



The substance of the fibres of smooth muscle behaves towards 

 very dilute hydrochloric acid (1 p. m.) in the same manner as 

 Liebig* showed was the case with the striated fibres. (See note to 

 vol. i, p. 359, on Syntonin, in the Appendix.) Thus, for instance, if 

 the muscular coat of the stomach (of the pig), after being cut in 

 shreds and thoroughly rinsed with water, be treated with hydro- 

 chloric acid of this dilution, the fibres of the smooth muscles be- 

 come dissolved ; on neutralisation of the acid, the solution behaves 

 in precisely the same manner as the hydrochloric-acid solution of 

 syntonin from striped muscle ; the flakes, which gradually separate, 

 dissolve very readily in an excess of an alkaline solution, and like- 

 wise in lime-water ; this solution coagulates on boiling, like albu- 

 men ; if, however, too much lime-water be added, the solution 

 merely becomes opalescent, and it is not till it is neutralised with 

 acetic acid that we have a copious curd-like precipitate. The 

 original hydrochloric-acid solution of the fibrils is strongly pre- 

 cipitated by concentrated solutions of the neutral salts of the 

 alkalies and alkaline earths ; as, for instance, chloride of potassium, 

 sulphate of soda, hydrochlorate of ammonia, chloride of calcium, 

 and sulphate of magnesia. 



I obtained precisely the same reactions on treating the well- 

 washed middle arterial coat of the ox, the bladder of the pig, and 

 the tunica dartos of the bull in a similar manner with dilute hydro- 

 chloric acid. 



No sarcolemma can be chemically demonstrated in the organic 

 muscles. Kolliker thought he could sometimes perceive indica- 

 tions of a cell-membrane in individual fibre -cells, but I have been 

 unable to demonstrate its presence by any chemical reagents. The 

 nature of the nucleus, which is insoluble in acetic and dilute mineral 

 acids, has not yet been closely examined. 



C. Schmidtf attempted some years ago to make an elementary 

 analysis of smooth muscle (the large thoracic muscles of the Cock- 

 chafer and the adductor muscles of Anodonta cygnea), for the pur- 

 pose of comparing its composition with that of striped muscular 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 73, S. 125-129. 



t Zur vergleichenden Physiologie der wirbellosen Thiere. Braunschweig, 

 1845, 8. 32-69 [or Taylor's Scientific Memoirs, vol. 5, pp. 14-28]. 



