414 GENERAL ANATOMY. 



microscopic observations of M. Bauer and of M. E. Home, 

 published with very beautiful plates, represents the muscular 

 fibre as identical with the particles of blood divested of their 

 colouring matter, and the central globules of which have 

 united in filaments. Messrs. Prevost and Dumas have uni- 

 formly obtained the same result, whatever may have been the 

 animal submitted to their examination, or whatever may have 

 been the form and volume of their globules; my own observa- 

 tions accord entirely with theirs. That the observation may 

 be divested of all doubt, it ought to be made on raw and un- 

 prepared muscular flesh; in fact, coction and the action of 

 alcohol produce globules by coagulating the albumen, and we 

 may attribute their presence in the muscular fibre to these 

 causes. These globules are united by a medium, invisible be- 

 cause of its transparency and want of colour; it is a kind of 

 jelly or mucous. If muscular flesh be macerated in water 

 frequently renewed, putrefaction changing more promptly 

 the means by which the globules are united than the latter 

 themselves, and the renewing of the water inducing the pro- 

 duct of putrefaction, isolated globules are obtained similar to 

 those of the coloured particles of the blood. The fibres of all 

 the muscles have the same volume as well as form. 



658. Wrinkles or flexuosities are often perceived on the 

 fasciculi of the muscles, particularly when boiled. This ap- 

 pearance was noticed by Hooke, Leuwenhoeck, Dehayde and 

 Haller, was well delineated by Muys,and engaged the special 

 attention of Prochaska, who attributes it to the contraction of 

 the cellular tissue, vessels and nerves, and to their crispation 

 by coction. These apparent wrinkles or stris have also been 

 ascribed to several other imaginary causes, and have produced 

 the supposition that the fibres have an articulated, twisted or 

 spiral disposition. These wrinkles are, or at least appear to 

 be, nothing more than flexuosities or undulations; they always 

 exist in contracted muscles, whether in the living, or in the 

 dead subject, or by the action of caloric. This flexuosity is 

 produced of its own accord when the retraction of a muscle is 

 assisted, or when .produced by cutting, by bringing its attach- 

 ments towards each other, or by pushing them towards each 



