8o 



fibres in the acting muscle. I have often de- 

 termined to examine, with a compound micro- 

 scope, the contraction of a naked muscle in a 

 living* animal, being convinced that by that 

 means something 1 might be obtained toward a 

 nearer explanation of this highly interesting prb- 

 cess of animal mechanics; but I have always 

 been deterred by an insurmountable aversion 

 to see a wounded animal suffer under the hand 

 of an experimenter, much as I at the same time 

 value the important physiological truths, which 

 have been discovered in this way. 



Sinews, (tendons and aponeuroses) are parts of 

 the muscles, by which they are fixed to remote 

 bones, or to circumscribed points of attachment. 

 They have a mechanically strong composition, and 

 Jtre formed from the same fundamental mass as 

 cellular texture smd cartilage, from which they 

 seem to differ only in their structure. They are 

 softened by degrees by boiling, and dissolved into 

 a glue, so that at last, the veins only remain 

 undissolved> 



Of the Membranes of the Eye, and the humours 

 which are contained in them, Chemistry has had 

 to record little else, than the observations, which 

 have been accidentally made by Anatomists. 



G 3 



