LESSON 66.] MUSCULAR FIBRE. 223 



pure, and nutritious "home-made," retains its freshness and softness 

 for at least a week, this is the best form of bread. 



980. Unripe fruit and vegetables should be avoided as dangerous ; 

 consequently green corn, being an unripe, immature vegetable, is 

 most unhealthy. 



981. Those persons who partake of this vegetable, are constrain- 

 ed to eat the hull, which, in the green state, is particularly thick 

 and tough, and cannot possibly be assimilated, as the experiments on 

 Martin's stomach fully testifies ; moreover, the corpuscles of starch, 

 so eminently desirable in the ripe corn, are not yet formed in its 

 green condition. Never eat or drink between meals. 



982. These remarks might be extended with great propriety, but 

 the theme is neither a gracious nor a pleasant one ; it must be under- 

 stood, at the same time, that they are addressed ostensibly to the 

 younger members of the community, who will feel no difficulty in 

 beginning the right way, and continuing in it, whereby their life 

 will be prolonged, and their happiness promoted. 



LESSON LXVI. 



COMPOUND TUBULAR TISSUES. MUSCULAR FIBRE. 



983. The flesh of animals is called technically muscle; examined 

 by the microscope it is found to be of two distinct formations 

 striped, and non-striped. The majority of the lower animals, espe- 

 cially those (Mollusca) in which the nutrimental function is devel- 

 oped at the expense of those properties which commonly distinguish 

 an animal, as locomotion, volition, &c., possess the non-striped mus- 

 cle only. 



984. Insects, Crustacea, and other of the animals conspicuous for 

 their activity, possess, in addition to the non-striped, the striped 

 muscle. 



985. In the lower, in common with all the higher animals, the 

 non-striped muscle belongs to the vegetative organs (nutrimental 

 canal) ; and the striped muscle to the organs of animal life (loco- 

 motion). 



986. A singular and beautiful illustration of the muscular fibre 

 of the Molluscous class may be given from a specimen of fossil mus- 

 cular fibre, from the tentacles of the extinct Belemnite, which accu- 



