226 B. MELLAND. 



In the white blood corpuscle they are arranged in a network or 

 ineshwork with polygonal meshes. In the ciliated cell they also form 

 a network which seems to be in peculiar relation with the cilia. In 

 the ciliated cell of the Mollusc, according to Engelmann, 1 the fibrils 

 are arranged in a longitudinal manner as fine varicose filaments 

 running the whole length of the cell, and in connection with the 

 bases of the cilia. In the protoplasm of the involuntary fibre cell 

 the fibrils are arranged in a central or axial bundle, anastomosing at 

 the poles of the nucleus with the intra-nu clear network. 



Observations on which I have been engaged for some time past, and 

 which have been partly worked out in the Physiological Laboratory of 

 Owens College, lead me to the belief that the striated muscular fibre 

 really agrees fundamentally as regards histological structure with 

 the other contractile tissue elements, in containing an intracellular 

 network, differing from them merely in the greater amount of differen- 

 tiation, and more regular arrangement, of the network. 



I believe, further, that the various conflicting descriptions given by 



different observers, and those points on which competent histologists 



differ more materially, can be explained and brought into harmony 



with one another by this view. 



I have observed this network in the fibres of Dytiscus, the Bee, 



Crayfish, Lobster, Frog, and Eat, prepared by a somewhat special 



method of gold staining, the network being the only part of the fibre 



stained by the gold. 



It may be specially stained also by treating the fibre with acetic 



acid, and subsequently staining with hgematoxylin. 



It may be demonstrated, though not so completely, in the living 



fibre, and in acetic and osmic acid preparations. I have submitted 



my drawings and preparations to the examination of Prof. A. Gamgee 



and Prof. Milnes Marshall. 



Demonstration of an Intracellular Network in the striped 



Muscle Fibre. 



I. The Muscle Fibre prepared with Gold Chloride. 



(a) Dytiscus marginalis. 



Method of gold staining. — Decapitate a Dytiscus, open the thorax, 



remove a portion of a leg muscle, and place in 1 per cent acetic acid 



1 Engelmami, * Pfluger's Archiv,' xxiii, 1880, and ' Quain's Anatomy,' 0th edition, vol. ii, 

 fig. 240. 



