June 30, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



705 



find tendons for smooth muscle!) From the 

 mesentery and from the fibers of the outer 

 coat, the circular and longitudinal muscles, 

 respectively, received the animal spirits or 

 nervous energy whereby they were at first 

 inflated and distended, thereafter becoming 

 shorter and more contracted. As to the action 

 of the two sets of muscle fibers, he wrote : 



Indeed the circular fibers, having contracted 

 successively and seriatim, constrict the diameter 

 of the intestine; and at the same time the longi- 

 tudinals, inflated and distended, narrow it still 

 more and produce a downward movement, so that 

 the contents of the intestines, thus compressed 

 from behind, must constantly be driven forward. 



With such a description current. Dr. Cole 

 begins his paper as follows : 



Discoursing (near two years since) with a very 

 ingenious Person, concerning the Mechanical rea- 

 son of the Peristaltick motion of the Intestines, 

 which is by Anatomists deduced principally from 

 Annular fibres, constituting, according to the re- 

 ceived doctrine (mth the right fibres immediately 

 investing them, though, by the by; I take these 

 to make a distinct coat) one of the coats of them; 

 his senee was (which he told me was that likewise 

 of some others of his acquaintance) that they 

 might be rather numerous, though small. Sphinc- 

 ter-muscles, than single fibres, to which that mo- 

 tion is to be attributed. 



For four theoretical considerations Dr. Cole 

 dissented, namely (1) that on the supposition 

 of circular sphincters there would be no con- 

 tinuous lengthwise channel for the propaga- 

 tion of motion, and (2) lateral transmission 

 seems not to be agreeable to nature's methods. 

 Moreover, (3) lateral exits would tend to pre- 

 vent distension of the fibers by the influent 

 matter; and (4) circular muscles lack two ten- 

 dons by the approximation of which all mus- 

 cular work is accomplished. He therefore 

 offered the following solution : 



Viz. That those fibres which have been esteemed 

 annular, might perhaps be spiral, and so be con- 

 tinued down in one tract to the lowest extremity 

 of the intestines; . . . their declination being not 

 easily discernible. . . But ... I consider 'd 'twas 

 too unphilosophical to acquiesce in bare specula- 

 tion, when autopsy might be consulted; and there- 

 fore I set upon the experiment, first in the upper 

 intestines of an Ox, afterwards in those of Sheep 

 and Calves. . . . 



To effect a due disjunction of the membranes 

 and fibres (which I found 'twas hard, if not 

 impossible, for me to make while 'twas raw), I 

 was fain to cause the intestine of Oxen to be 

 boiled 5 or 6 hours, of Sheep 4; whereby the com- 

 pages of the parts was so loosned, that the two 

 outward coats were easily separated from that to 

 which my search was destined, and left those 

 reputed annular fibres naked. 



The results of attempting to follow, through 

 separation, the course of the bundles of these 

 muscle fibers — single fibers being found too 

 small to isolate — Dr. Cole records in numbered 

 paragraphs, from first through "eighthly." 

 The following are selected statements, abbre- 

 viated (as were previous citations) : 



When, beginning at the top, I attempted the 

 separation of one of these clusters of fibres 

 towards my right hand (on that side of the intes- 

 tine, I mean, which was turned towards me) a 

 whole ring would come off together . . .; but 

 endeavouring it towards my left, I found, for the 

 most part, I could easily enough unravel that 

 cluster to a considerable length, viz., that of some- 

 times more than two or three spans, before rup- 

 tion, which yet at last 'twould be subject to. 



If I began at the lower part of the intestine, 

 and try 'd to unravel upwards, there was not much 

 more difficulty in so doing . . . [But] the opera- 

 tion, I observ'd would not succeed, unless I at- 

 tempted it on the contrary order, viz., towards 

 my right hand. 



When before boiling I caused the inside of the 

 intestines to be turned outward, as I did in two 

 tryals, . . . and endeavoured to unravel the 

 fibres, I found they would come off in the con- 

 trary order . . . the intestine being inverted, the 

 order of separation must be so too. 



Other observations are that the obliquity of 

 the spiral may vary; that the spiral is less 

 well-defined in the caecum; and that everywhere 

 some fibers deviate from the main trend, being 

 in the opposite order, or forming intercom- 

 munications between the turns of the spiral. 

 But the general conclusion reached is that the 

 fibers altogether form "one concave helical 

 muscle." 



Where the tendons of it are fixed is not evident; 

 but if I may have the liberty of conjecture, I 

 should think the upper of them to be radicated 

 at the pylorus (if not as high as the sphincter, 

 gulae) ; and the other at the anus. 



Whether the supposed annual fibres of the veins 



