Reviews and Records in Anatomy and Physiology. 99 
fibrillated membrane. Again, in along fusiform muscle of one 
of the tentacles of an Alcyonella, we have observed a like want 
of any cell-constituents—the muscle being apparently composed 
of a delicate granular, punctiform substance. On contraction, 
the muscle changed from fusiform to a fan-shape, its punctiform 
aspect becoming darker and more condensed. Further research 
upon these intricate points is greatly needed, but=it should be 
remembered that there is, histologically, no reason why a granu- 
lar stroma or substance should not possess contractility, as well 
as the elaborated formations from cells. It is true that its action 
e 
the internal relation of this process is hidden from our perception, 
and is as much an enigma as the real essence, the remote cause, 
of everything else connected with the organic world about us. 
The apparent phenomena in question are well-known and easily 
observed. A. fibrilla contracts, and its increase in lateral bulk 
is proportionate exactly to the decrease in length that has taken 
place ;—no space, therefore, has been gained. In the striated 
form of this tissue, this shortening is attended with an approxi- 
orms of this tissue, the unstriated and the cellular, nothing is 
* See, for an inquiry into the nature of the contractile tissues of the lower ani- 
selene bstanz niedersten 
here advancedgsupport those we have suggestively thrown out in the above remarks, 
as based upon abe que limited’ observations pig Fo made on this subject. ge 
