On Tissues of Muscle in Mummy. By Dr. B. L. Maddox. 543 



diflficulties, and it is doubtful if the last words have yet been said in 

 connection with its attributes and structure ; hence we can hardly expect 

 that the dead tissues of remote ages, no matter by whatever method 

 preserved, should be found to closely correspond with the hving or 

 recently dead similar structui'es. We have lost the striation and its 

 doubly refracting power, the sarcolemma and the long pointed nuclei, 

 and how far the chemical substances, myosin, glycogen, inosit, creatin, 

 &c., remain intact in the mummy muscle, is very doubtful. The with- 

 drawal of moisture with the use of materials to delay tissue change we 

 must expect wiU prevent any very perfect restoration as a whole of this 

 highly dehcate complex tissue. With the separation of the bundles of 

 fibres into smaller ones, and these again into finer ones, all of which are 

 held together by connective tissue, until we end at the fibrill^e, we must, 

 it appears, for the present be content in our comparison of the recent 

 muscular structure and the remote dead. To have gained this much 

 with the addition of vessels and nerves, was worth the inquiry. 



Note. — Since the foregoing was read, one of the Members of the 

 Council, Mr. Julien Deby, has drawn my attention to a paper by 

 Czermak,* published in 1852, containing the result of his examination 

 of two Egyptian mummies, and having most kindly placed the article at 

 my service, I am enabled to add this very brief summary of the interesting 

 details of the microscopical examination. The mummies were those of 

 an adult female and of a lad about 15 years of age, and dating from a 

 period of 2000 years since; the former being in a very marked state of 

 preservation, having been most carefully prepared and wrapped with 

 about 4000 yards of bandages, though not a person of an exalted station. 

 The boy was much damaged, hence the examination chiefly refers to the 

 former. Czermak, after giving a general description of the condition of 

 the different parts of the bodies, and alluding to the method of embalming 

 and the excellent preservation of the female mummy, which he attributes 

 especially to the natron used in the process, passes to the microscopical 

 details, of which he gives thirteen very carefuUy drawn figures. On re- 

 ferring to these it will be noticed that Czermak was very fortunate, as he 

 found the striation in one of the voluntary muscles — the sphincter of the 

 eyehd — by making use of turpentine as the examining medium ; but this 

 medium failed entirely in my hands, and also upon making a further 

 trial of the same. He does not appear to have obtained the separation 

 into fibrillae, as his figure is that of a bundle of fibrils. To accomplish 

 this separation it seemed to me to be necessary to swell the tissues very 

 gradually. There is another most interesting point in Czermak's paper, 

 he having been able to recognise the axis cylinder in the fibres composing 

 the median nerve of the arm. It wiU need no apology to ofier a 

 very brief notice of the microscopical details, as his paper may not be of 

 easy access to many of the Fellows. 



The following refers to the figures as given in the plate at the end 

 of the paper : — 



1. The cells with nuclei of a section of the nail of the ring finger of the female 

 mummy. 



2. A longitudinal section near the root of the nail. 



* SB. K. Akad. W^iss. (Math.-Naturw. CI.), ix. (1852). 



