72 CONTRACTILE FIBRE-CELLS. 



more accurate investigation, show that there exists, at all events, 

 a very great analogy between the juice of the striped muscles and 

 that of the fibre-cells. If we concur in the doubts expressed by 

 some of the most distinguished histologists regarding the existence 

 of these fibre-cells in the middle coat of the arteries, in which 

 Kolliker believes he has found them, it would, at all events, seem to 

 be proved, in regard to the chemical view of the case, that the fibrils 

 of the striped muscles, like the smooth muscles and the contrac- 

 tile tissues, not only contain a solid substance which is chemically 

 identical in all, but that this textural element is invariably sur- 

 rounded by a juice which differs essentially from all other animal 

 juices by its acid reaction, the abundance of its potash-salts and 

 phosphates, and by its containing creatine, &c. It remains for a 

 more exact investigation to establish with greater precision the 

 differences which the provisional analyses indicate between the 

 constitution of these juices in the different contractile tissues. 



Although we have already sufficiently indicated the course to 

 be pursued in the investigation of contractile tissue, we will briefly 

 review the mode of proceeding. If we are once assured that the 

 object which we are examining is a tissue composed of various 

 histological elements, which, moreover, is permeated by a fluid 

 differing in all respects from the blood-serum, whether such con- 

 tractile tissue be obtained from the middle arterial coat, the 

 "muscular layer of the intestine, the urinary bladder, the tunica 

 dartos or the uterus, our first endeavours should of course be 

 directed to the removal of the unimportant constituents from the 

 fibres of the smooth muscle. Unfortunately, we are quite unable 

 to obtain perfectly pure fibre-cells free from nerves, connective 

 tissue, and nuclear and elastic fibres ; we are therefore compelled 

 to have recourse to various indirect means of obtaining a know- 

 ledge of the chemical nature of this histological element. When 

 the tissue has been carefully reduced to minute shreds, and rinsed 

 in lukewarm water until no trace of organic matter is longer 

 visible in the fluid that is poured over it, two methods present 

 themselves for our choice in preparing the substance of the fibre- 

 cells for chemical examination. We may dissolve either the con- 

 nective tissue or the fibre-cells ; either method, however, is open 

 to serious objections. No other solvent than boiling water should 

 be used for dissolving the connective tissue when an albuminous 

 tissue is present ; and, even then, we only attain our object in a 

 most imperfect manner; for, in the first place, the fibrinous sub- 

 stratum of the cells is reduced to a state of coagulation, which 



