G96 



THE MICROSCOPE. 



Fie "26. Mtuseularjibre broken across, 



the fragments connected by the untom 

 structureless membrane, myolemma. 

 (Magnified 100 diameters.) 



This cannot always be discerned; but when the two ends 

 are drawn asunder it will be 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 

 fig. 326. 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 alka- 

 lies ; which occasion it to swell 

 and become easy of separa- 

 tion. 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 fig. 327, 

 and the ultimate structure of 

 a fibre, under a magnifying power of 600 diameters, at 

 fig. 328, No. 1. 



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. Such 

 a transition is shown in fig. 

 328, No. 2 ; the tendon, the 

 lower part of which may be 

 seen passing insensibly into 

 the striped muscle, the glan- 

 dular sarcous elements of 

 the latter appearing, as it 

 were, to be deposited in the 

 substance of the tendon (just 

 as calcareous particles are 

 deposited in bone), at first leaving the tissue about the 

 walls of the cavities of the endopksts, 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 

 lacunae have no distinguishable walls. On the other hand 



Fig. 327. — Muscular fibre, broken up 

 into irregular and distinct bands; 

 a few blood globules are distributed 

 about. (Magnified 200 diameters). 



