348 THE SOLIDS. 



late from end to end, relinquishing on the one hand what 

 they gain on the other. When they are numerous along 

 the same margin, they interfere most irregularly with one 

 another, dragging one another as though striving for the 

 mastery, the larger ones continually overcoming the smaller ; 

 then subsiding, as though spent, stretched by new spots of 

 contraction; and again, after a short period of repose, en- 

 gaged in their turn by some advancing wave. This is the 

 first stage of the phenomenon. At a subsequent stage, the 

 ends of the fibre commonly cease to be fixed, in consequence 

 of the intermediate portions, by their contraction, receiving 

 some of the pressure of the glass. The contractions, there- 

 fore, increasing in number and extent, gradually engage the 

 whole substance of the fibre, which then is reduced to at 

 least one third of its original length." * 



To this experiment, which I have never been able suc- 

 cessfully to repeat, some exceptions may be taken. Thus 

 it is known that water has a powerful and remarkable 

 effect in exciting muscular fibre which still retains its irrita- 

 bility to contraction, and the nodulated aspect of the fibre 

 mentioned may have been due to the fact, that the fibre was 

 not entirely immersed in water (the piece of mica being 

 merely moistened), but only touched by that fluid at certain 

 intervals, which most probably corresponded with the 

 bulgings of the fibre referred to. This explanation is sup- 

 ported by the effect of water on recent muscular fibre, 

 entirely immersed in that liquid. Thus, on the moment of 

 immersion, the fibres contract greatly in leagth, increase in 

 a corresponding proportion in bulk, become irregularly bulged 

 and nodulated : the transverse lines on the fibres disappear, 

 the longitudinal lines at the same time becoming more 

 strongly marked than usual. (See Plate XLII. fig. 3.) 

 These several effects are due to the extraordinary, unequal, 

 and doubtless, also, abnormal contraction induced by the 

 stimulus of water. Presuming, therefore, that in the expe- 

 riment referred to, the phenomena occur in the order de- 



* Physiological Anatomy, pp. 180, 181. 



