374 MUSCULAR MOTION. 



or fascise, owing to their being obviously less liable to displacement ; 

 and the short are situate in parts, where considerable force is required, 

 and but little motion ; so that their fibres are very numerous. 



The number of muscles, varies, of course, in different animals, in 

 proportion to the extent and variety of motion they are called upon 

 to execute. In man, it is differently estimated by anatomists; some 

 describing several distinct' muscles under one name ; and others di- 

 viding into many what ought to belong to one. According to the 

 arrangement of M. Chaussier, three hundred and sixty-eight distinct 

 muscles are admitted ; but others reckon as many as four hundred and 

 fifty. 



When muscles are subjected to analysis, they are found to consist of 

 fibrin; osmazome ; jelly; albumen; phosphates of soda, ammonia, and 

 lime ; carbonate of lime ; chloride of sodium ; phosphate, and lactate 

 of soda; and, according to Fourcroy and Vauquelin, 1 sulphur and 

 potassa are present. The great constituents of the pure muscular 

 tissue are, fibrin, and probably osmazome; the gelatin met with 

 being ascribable to the areolar membrane that envelopes the muscular 

 fibres and lacerti. The membranous structures of young animals con- 

 tain a much greater quantity of jelly than those of the adult; and it 

 is probably on this account, that the flesh of the former is more gela- 

 tinous ; not because the muscular fibre contains more gelatin. M. The- 

 nard assigns the muscles, on final analysis, the following constituents : 

 fibrin ; albumen ; osmazome ; fat ; substances capable of passing to the 

 state of gelatin ; acid (lactic), and different salts : kreatin and krea- 

 tinin have likewise been found in them. They have also been ana- 

 lyzed by Berzelius and Braconnot 2 and others. It must be borne in 

 mind, however, as M. Raspail 3 has properly remarked, that all these 

 are the results of the analysis of muscle, as we meet with it. The 

 analysis of muscular fibre has yet to be accomplished. In this, too, 

 and every analogous case, the analysis only affords us evidence of the 

 constituents of dead animal matter ; and some of the products may 

 even have been formed by new affinities resulting from the operations 

 of the analyst. They can afford but an imperfect judgment of the con- 

 stitution of the living substance. These remarks are especially appli- 

 cable to the efforts at determining the composition of muscle by ulti- 

 mate analysis. Mulder, 4 indeed, affirms, that this is impracticable 

 " for in this process we burn a mixture of various substances, a very 

 complicated tissue of muscular fibres, ligamentary tissue, coats of 

 bloodvessels and nerves. If, therefore, Playfair and Bockmann have 

 found the composition of muscle to be identical with that of blood, 

 which is a mixture of various substances, containing some that are en- 

 tirely different from those of muscle, and in which again others are 

 wanting that are present in the latter, then this may be considered as 



1 Annales de Chimie, Ivi. 43. 



a Miiller's Handbuch der Physiologie, Baly's translation, Part i. p. 369, Lond., 1837 ; and 

 Dr. T. Thomson, Chemistry of Animal Bodies, p. 273, Edinb., 1843. 



3 Op. citat., p. 214. 



4 The Chemistry of Vegetable and Animal Physiology, by Fromberg, &c., p. 589. Edinb. 

 and Lond., 1849. 



