36 PRACTICAL HISTOLOGY. 



MUSCULAR TISSUE. 



There are two varieties of muscular tissue, the non-striped and the striped. The former 

 may easily be obtained from certain of the hollow viscera, and the latter from the voluntary 

 muscles of the limbs. 



NON-STRIPED MUSCLE (INTESTINE). 



PREPARATION. Kill a rabbit ; wash out a piece of the small intestine with salt solution, 

 and afterwards distend the gut with absolute alcohol. Place the distended gut in absolute 

 alcohol for twelve hours. After it is hardened, whilst still distended, with a pair of forceps strip 

 off a thin layer of the longitudinally disposed muscular fibres, forming the outer muscular layer 

 of the gut, and place it in water to remove the alcohol ; float it on to a slide and stain with 

 logwood for five minutes and mount it in dammar. Cover. 



EXAMINATION (L). Observe the large number of fusiform nuclei arranged more or less 

 parallel to each other. 



(H). Observe the fusiform shape of the nuclei stained deep blue. These are the nuclei 

 of the fusiform muscular fibre-cells of which the tissue is composed. (Indicate the nuclei in 

 PI. VII., Fig. i.) 



It is necessary to isolate these fusiform cells to show that the tissue is composed of a 

 number of them cemented together. 



PREPARATION. Place a small piece of the fresh muscular wall of the intestine or stomach 

 in a twenty per cent, solution of nitric acid for twenty-four hours ; this will dissolve the cement. 

 Place a strip of this softened tissue in water to remove the acid, and then tease a small piece 

 on a slide. It is very difficult to stain the nuclei of these isolated cells after the action 

 of nitric acid, but a watery solution of magenta may be tried ; or steeping in picrocarmine for 

 forty-eight hours or longer. Mount in glycerine and cover. 



EXAMINATION (H). Notice a great number of elongated small fusiform cells floating in 

 the field. Each cell is broad at the middle and tapers towards the extremities. Near the 

 centre is the fusiform nucleus stained red, and at each of its poles not unfrequently a few 

 granules are to be seen. In some of the fibres corrugated bars may be seen passing across the 

 cell ; these are where partial contractions of the body of the cell have been fixed by the acid. 

 (Indicate these fibres in PI. VII., Fig. 2.) 



BLADDER OF A FROG. 



PREPARATION. Distend the bladder of a frog with dilute alcohol (p. xxxiv), and place it 

 distended in a large quantity of the same fluid for twenty-four hours. At the end of that time 

 slit open the bladder, place it on a slide with the inner surface uppermost, and with a camel- 

 hair pencil brush away all the epithelium lining the bladder, which is very easily removed. 

 Wash the tissue in water, and stain one piece with logwood and mount it in dammar, and 

 another for half-an-hour with picrocarmine, and mount it in Farrant's solution. 



