VOLUNTARY MUSCLE IN THE LIVING BODY. 71 



by a contraction consisting of an absolutely simultaneous and uniform approximation 

 of all its elementary parts to one another, and supposing for a moment that though 

 the contraction was everywhere present, yet some feebleness of structure, or trifling 

 diminution of the contractile force at one part, determined a rupture to take place 

 there, the resulting appearances would necessarily be altogether difterent from those 

 that have been detailed. The rupture would be definite and abrupt, without exten- 

 sive stretching and consequent disorganization, and the whole retracting fibre would 

 bear traces of an uniform and universal contraction, instead of an unequal and par- 

 tial one, very limited in extent, and similar in every essential character to that which 

 I have delineated in dying muscle*. 



2. There is no Repellent Force between the Contractile Elements of Muscular Fibre. 



When muscle is taken from the body after all irritability has subsided, and when 

 no stimulant has been previously applied capable of disordering its action during the 

 rigor mortis, the distance between the transverse striae will usually be found nearly 

 uniform at every part ; but when partial contractions occur in a fragment that has been 

 removed prior to the cessation of its irritability, the contracted parts remain perma- 

 nently distinguished from the rest of the primitive fasciculus, by the closeness of their 

 transverse striae. In the former case, every primitive fasciculus having its extremities 

 held apart by its proper antagonists, the contractile efforts constituting the rigor mortis 

 are uniformly and gradually expended, and no inordinate amount of contraction can 

 leave its vestiges in any part ; but, in the latter, no such antagonizing power being 

 exerted, the contractions remain wherever and to whatever degree they may have 

 been present. 



This explanation involves and rests upon the above principle, and it follows, that 

 whatever prevents a muscular fibre from being elongated, when its contractile 

 energy subsides, must cause it to retain that arrangement of its parts which was 

 assumed during contraction. Now, in the examples under consideration, the rupture 

 prevented such an elongation, and the result is, that the organ has been, as it were, 

 surprised in the very act of contraction, and retains in its structure the permanent 

 impression of that act, — a view strongly corroborated by the uniformity of the distance 

 between the transverse striae in those muscles, which had been likewise convulsed, 

 but had escaped rupture. 



It may be further remarked, that the occurrence of ecchymoses entirely accords 

 with the idea of partial contractions, while it is inconsistent with that of an universal 

 one, for how could the vessels be torn in tetanic spasm if this were merely a strong and 

 enduring, but uniform approximation of all the elements of the primitive fasciculi to 

 one another ? They would be compressed indeed, but not dragged asunder ; whereas, 

 such would be the natural effect of excessive partial contractions, oscillating from 

 place to place, and continually drawing in opposite directions, and in an irregular 

 manner, the uncontracted portions ; for the capillaries take a longitudinal course be- 



* Loc. cit., Plate XIX. figs. 83. 88., No. 3. &c. 



