132 MUSCLE-FIBRE N ON-LIVING. 



being a mere repetition of the first movement that occurred 

 when the formation of the tissue was complete " (Ibid., p. 237). 

 Such a movement is totally different from the protoplasmic 

 movements described at p. 51, and it is difficult to conceive a 

 substance like the protoplasm contracting as above described. 

 The question of the exact boundaries of the living action, and 

 that of the mere mechanical arrangements for the transforma- 

 tion of force, w r hich together cause muscular movement, is still 

 involved in obscurity. But Dr. Beale has made great strides 

 towards the clearing up this difficulty, and has always advanced 

 in the most philosophical and cautious manner, by keeping the 

 anatomical evidence in the foreground. He demonstrates, 

 first, that for each elementary muscular fibre, whether plain or 

 striped, the sarcolemma, and the sarcous prisms, whether scat- 

 tered or arranged in Bowman's discs, and also (most probably) 

 the single refracting semi-fluid in which they are imbedded, 

 are non-living, for these reasons : " The structure of unstriped 

 muscle is smooth, or very slightly fibrous, but exhibits no indi- 

 cations of containing bioplasm in its substance. The tissue is 

 not tinged with the carmine fluid. It possesses all the general 

 characters of formed material, and its relation to the bioplasm 

 is the same as that of the formed material of other tissues. 

 The evidence is therefore against such a view, as regards un- 

 striped muscle. Neither is it probable that in each sarcous 

 particle of striped muscle there is a minute portion of bioplasm, 

 because, in the first place, the living matter cannot be detected 

 at an early period of the development of muscle ; secondly, in 

 inflammation, and in other morbid conditions, in which the 

 masses of bioplasm of tissues are much increased in size, no 

 change is seen in the sarcous particles themselves ; thirdly, 

 the lines of sarcous particles correspond with the wavy bands 

 of the fibrous tissue of tendon, which unquestionably consists 

 of formed material only ; and, lastly, since the very transparent 

 contracting tissues of some of the lower animals do not contain 

 bioplasm in their ultimate fibrillae, there is good reason for 

 concluding that there is no living matter in the substance of 

 the higher forms of contractile tissue. The phenomenon of 

 contractility characteristic of this class of tissues is therefore 



