134 COAGULATION AND STAINING OF THE FIBKE. 



a steam-engine without the boiler, as it were. This is more 

 fully stated as follows : 



" The states of rest, of partial contraction, and complete con- 

 traction, are but different degrees of the self-same process of 

 shortening of a delicate fibre. This contractile fibre, perhaps, 

 consists of a passive basic substance of a fibrous character, 

 through which is diffused a soft material, prone to move in di- 

 rections at right angles to one another, according to the manner 

 in which external forces operate upon it. The changing sub- 

 stance upon which the alteration depends can be expressed 

 from the muscular tissue, and coagulates spontaneously, like 

 the fibrin of blood. Young muscles yield a larger proportion 

 of this material than old ones, but I do not think that it is 

 derived solely from the biojrtasm of muscle' ; * (" Biopl.," 212). 



* That is to say, in spite of the spontaneous coagulation of tliis 

 semi-fluid matter, which may be expressed from the contractile fibre, 

 it is still " passive," or dead, and he cannot allow that it can be proto- 

 plasm, and evolve force in a vital manner, or be the source of muscular 

 action by protoplasmic movements. I do not think the circumstance 

 of coagulation after death, although that is one of the signs of living 

 matter, has much weight as a proof of the living nature of the single- 

 refracting matter, for we know the fibrinogen of the blood, and of 

 effused fluids, can remain fluid for long when in contact with living 

 matter, which by its interaction with it prevents the formation of 

 fibrin. No doubt this is part of the function of the protoplasm- 

 masses (nuclei) of the sarcolemma. It must be remembered that what 

 Kiiline called muscular protoplasm was obtained by shredding frozen, 

 frog-muscles freed from blood. The viscid liquid filtered from this, 

 when thawed, he called protoplasm, but it is obvious it must have con- 

 tained particles of true protoplasm of the nuclei of nerve, muscle- 

 sheath, capillary and connective tissues, This would account for any 

 signs of vitality beyond coagulability, which certainly belongs to the 

 muscle-fibre contents, as we see by the rigor mortis. But lactic acid 

 is also one of the products of death, of probably all true protoplasm 

 certainly of muscular action and causes staining with carmine. Why, 

 then, is the fibre itself not stained ? It is true that Ranke and Ger- 

 lach, from experiments on the muscles of the Axolotl, assert that the 

 intermediate substance between the sarcous elements is coloured by 

 the carmine, while the latter are not. And Ranke generalizes this for 

 all muscles ; but it is denied by Beale, and this denial is supported by 

 his plates. I have seen several of the preparations from which these 

 were taken, and I can testify to the accuracy of the plates. Rauke 

 used preparations made with alcohol, which may have vitiated his re- 

 sults (Henle's "BerichV 1868, p. 351). 



