THE MUSCULAR JUICE. 89 



in the flesh of mammals and birds, viz., from 15 '8 to 16*7^ ; in the 

 case of young animals, the numbers were somewhat less ; in the 

 flesh of reptiles and fishes, they were from 9 '4 to 13*2f. 



The substance of the vessels and nerves, as well as the nuclear 

 fibres of the connective tissue and the sarcolemma, are naturally 

 mixed with the muscular fibre in these determinations. 



The question here arises whether we may, or may not, regard the 

 protein-substance extracted from the flesh by means of water con- 

 taining hydrochloric acid, as true muscular fibre ; that is to say, as 

 the cylindrical muscular bundles which are enclosed in the sarco- 

 lemma. According to Liebig,* this solvent extracts very dif- 

 ferent quantities of this protein- sub stance from the flesh of dif- 

 ferent animals ; thus, for instance, the muscular fibres of the ox 

 and the hen are almost entirely dissolved ; a greater amount of 

 substance remains from the flesh of sheep, and far more than half in 

 the case of calves' flesh. We have already seen that by treating the 

 flesh with acidified water the sarcolemma is perfectly emptied, with 

 the exception of nuclei and granules, and a few small clots ; hence, as 

 Liebig^s experiments are perfectly correct (as any one may ascertain 

 by repeating them), it follows that calves' flesh contains relatively 

 less fibre-substance (syntonin), and relatively more connective 

 tissue, than the other kinds of flesh which were examined ; as, for 

 instance, that of oxen. This observation is further corroborated 

 by a simple microscopical comparison of the primitive bundles of 

 muscle in the ox and the calf. Dondersf noticed the striking dif- 

 ference of diameter in the primitive bundles of the cow and the 

 calf, and he is of opinion that the number of the bundles remains 

 the same during the growth of the calf; in which case, the fibre- 

 substance (syntonin) would alone increase during the growth of 

 the animal, whilst the sarcolemma and connective tissue remained 

 the same. It may be assumed that the diameter of the primitive 

 bundles of the calf is from 1 to f smaller than that of the 

 primitive bundles of the full-grown ox. If the number of the 

 bundles remains the same, and if the sarcolemma and connective 

 tissue do not increase with the growth of the muscle, it becomes 

 a mathematical necessity that less muscle-fibrin (syntonin) admits 

 of being extracted from the flesh of calves than from that of oxen. 

 There can be no doubt, from the micro- chemical reactions already 

 indicated, that the protein-substance which can be extracted by 



* Ann. d. Ch. u. Pharm. Bd. 75, S. 126. 



t Mulder's Vers. einer physiol. Chem. S. 630, Anm. [or English Transl. 

 p. 578, note.] 



