370 THE MICROSCOPE. 



perceived to rise up in wrinkles, or the fragments of the torn muscle 

 will be seen to be connected by the untorn membrane, as at No. 5, 

 Plate XIII. This membrane is termed Myolemma. It is best seen 

 when a piece of muscle is subjected to the action of fluids, as diluted 

 acetic or citric acid, or the fluid alkalies; which occasion it to swell and 

 become easy of separation. It has no share in the contraction of the 

 muscle itself, which is made up of a series of bundles of highly elastic 

 fibres : portions of a separated bundle are shown at No. 6 ; and the 

 ultimate structure of a fibre, under a magnifying power of 600 dia- 

 meters, at No. 7, Plate XIII. 



Dr. Hyde Salter pointed out, that in the tongue, the muscles pass 

 directly into the bundles of the submucous connective tissue, which serve 

 as their tendons. We have figured such a transition at Plate XII., No. 1 1 : 

 the tendon, the lower part of which may be seen passing insensibly into 

 the striped muscle, the glandular sarcous elements of the latter appear- 

 ing, as it were, to be deposited in the substance of the tendon (just as 

 the calcareous particles are deposited in bone), at first leaving the tissue 

 about the walls of the cavities of the endoplasts, and that in some other 

 directions, unaltered. These portions, which would have represented 

 the elastic element in ordinary connective tissue, disappear in the 

 centre of the muscular bundle, and the endoplasts are immediately 

 surrounded by muscle ; just as in many specimens of bone (see figs, of 

 bone), the lacunse have no distinguishable walls. On the other hand, 

 at the surface of the bundle the representative of the elastic element 

 remains, and often becomes as much developed as the sarcolemma. 

 There is no question here of muscle resulting from the contents of 

 fused cells, &c. It is obviously and readily seen to be nothing but a 

 metamorphosis of the periplastic substance, in all respects comparable 

 to that which occurs in ossification, or in the development of ten- 

 don. In this case we might expect, that as there is an areolar form of 

 connective tissue, so we should find some similar arrangement of 

 muscle ; and such may indeed be seen very beautifully in the termina- 

 tion of the branched muscles, as they are called. In Plate XII., No. 12, 

 the termination of such a muscle from the lip of a rat, is shown ; and 

 the stellate " cells" of areolated connective tissue are seen passing into 

 the divided extremities of the muscular bundle, becoming gradually 

 striated as they do so. In the muscle it is obvious enough, that what- 

 ever homology there may be between the stellate " cells" and the mus- 

 cular bundles with which they are continuous, there is no functional 

 analogy, the stellate bodies having no contractile faculty. But the 

 nervous tubule is developed in essentially the same manner as a 



