213 



The following is a summary of the conclusions which the author 

 has arrived at on the main subject of his inquiry : 



In both kinds of muscles, voluntary and involuntary, there is an 

 interweaving of the fibres with the formation of meshes. 



The fibres in both kinds are long, slender, rounded cords of uni- 

 form width, except at the ends, where they are fixed by tendinous 

 tissue ; and in both, the size of the fibres in the same bundle varies 

 greatly. 



In neither voluntary nor involuntary muscle is the fibre of the 

 nature of a cell, but in both is composed of minute threads or fibrils. 

 Its surface-appearance in both kinds of muscle allows of the supposi- 

 tion that in both it is constructed in a similar way, namely, of small 

 particles or "sarcous elements," and that a difference in the arrange- 

 ment of these elements gives a dotted appearance to the involuntary 

 and a transverse striation to the voluntary fibres. 



The length of the fibres varies in both cases with the organ or 

 part examined, and the connexion with tendon always takes -place 

 after the same manner, whether the fibre is dotted or striated. 



On the addition of acetic acid, fusiform or rod-shaped corpuscles 

 make their appearance in all muscular tissue ; these bodies, which 

 appear to belong to the sheath of the fibre, approach nearest in their 

 characters to the corpuscles belonging to the yellow or elastic fibres 

 which pervade various other tissues ; and, from the apparent identity 

 in nature of these corpuscles in the different textures in which they 

 are found, and especially in voluntary as compared with involuntary 

 muscle, it is scarcely conceivable that in the latter case exclusively 

 they should be the nuclei of oblong cells constituting the proper 

 muscular tissue. 



The paper concludes with a statement of the mode of procedure 

 which the author has found most suitable for examining the tissue 

 which forms the subject of his inquiry. 



