CHAPTEE VII. 



THE HEART. 

 BY F. SCHWEIGGER-SEIDEK 



THE muscular tissue of the heart presents certain peculiarities 

 which connect it with the structure of those muscles that are 

 subject to the will, whilst, on the other hand, in certain not unes- 

 sential points it presents characters that are perfectly unique. 

 The structure is apparently fibrous, although the slightest 

 examination shows that it is impossible to exhibit fibres corre- 



Fig. 39. Small portion of a transverse section through the muscular 

 tissue of the heart, c, capillaries. 



spending to the elements of the ordinary muscles. When it is 

 broken up, we for the most part obtain only portions of thin 

 fibrous-like structure, because the fine muscular fibres, dividing 

 frequently and anastomosing with one another, form a close and 

 continuous network * The contractile substance is transversely 



* The anastomosing muscular fibres of the heart, which had already heen 

 depicted by Leeuwenhoek, were rediscovered by KoLliker. See his Mikro- 

 skopische Anatomie, Band ii., pp. 209 and 483. Remak also described the 

 peculiar characters of the muscular tissue of the heart in Miiller's Archiv 

 for 1850. 



