On Tissues in Muscle of Mummy. By Br. B. L. M&ddox. 539 



sented only a finely granular appearance, but in this could be detected 

 numerous fine fibres of different refractive power from the rest of the 

 substance. These delicate fibres with high powers could be traced into 

 different planes forming a plexus. 



No. IG permitted the examination of similar fine fibres to be carried 

 perhaps a little further. 



The objects, when prepared for the purpose of examination, were 

 temporarily mounted either in a saturated solution of potassic acetate 

 and distilled water equal parts, or in distilled water with such portions 

 of the reagent that remained adherent to the small portion of muscle 

 that was selected. 



In order to avoid assuming the correctness of my own interpretation 

 of the appearances presented under the Microscope, every endeavour was 

 made to photograph the structures, but where the delicate and the densely 

 coloured portions were in the same field of view, it was found impossible 

 to distinctly render the former, such as the fibrillae and nerves, the same 

 becoming through over-exposure too feeble to print with fair definition 

 in the positive, before the exposure had been long enough to impress 

 the image of the denser parts, consequently I was driven to the use of 

 the pencil and camera lucida to portray these structures— structures 

 which it was not in any way anticipated would be thus far found intact. 

 The figures of plate X. have been drawn to a scale larger than the 

 photomicrographs, or really than necessary, but this was done expressly 

 that the parts might be more readily distinguished. A lower magnifi- 

 cation was tried, but the result was less satisfactory, and it was more 

 difficult to use. 



The macroscopical appearances have already been alluded to. In the 

 microscopical examination the first thing that was noticed in a large 

 number of the portions that had been teased out by the needles was a 

 coarse, granular striation, crossing at irregular intervals at right angles 

 to the course of the fibres. This is shown in fig. 5 and in photograph 

 No. 1. I have no satisfactory theory to offer to account for this pecu- 

 liarity, which was evidently not directly due to the pressure of the 

 bandages, as in many of the bits of muscle they were far too near each 

 other for that idea, but it struck me as the process of embalming was 

 often carried out or begun very shortly after death, that in this case it 

 might have been before the rigior mortis had passed away, and that the 

 albuminoid fluid substance of the muscle had been coagulated, and as it 

 seems impressed or imprisoned under the rigor of the muscular structures. 

 The next notable appearance was the preservation of the muscular 

 fibres, but unfortunately minus their own striation. In some of the prepared 

 specimens, the muscular structure presented a beautiful wavy character 

 which did not admit of perfect straightening, and in some cases where 

 one of the needles used, a thin pointed flat one, had been pressed some- 

 what heavily on the fibres, these had been broken up into finer bundles 

 and finally pressed out or broken up into their respective fibrillae, whilst 

 here and there in other specimens fibrillae as fine lines could be seen 

 stretching across from fibre to fibre of the teased-out muscle. The 

 former only have been represented in fig. 1. An unsuccessful attempt 

 has been made to photograph both conditions. Photographs 2 and 3. 



2 N 2 



