MUSCULAR TISSUE. 185 
striae and the rounded aree of the transverse section are 
simply the optical expressions of the boundaries of these 
fibrils. In the perfectly unaltered state of the tissue, 
however, the fibrils are so closely packed that their 
boundaries are scarcely discernible. 
Thus each muscular fibre may be regarded as com- 
posed of larger and smaller bundles of fibrils im- 
bedded in a nucleated protoplasmic framework which 
ensheaths the whole and is itself invested by the sar- 
colemma. 
As the fibre dies, the nuclei acquire hard, dark contours 
and their contents become granular, while at the same 
time the fibrils acquire sharp and well-defined boundaries. 
In fact, the fibre may now be readily teased out with 
needles, and the fibrils isolated. 
In muscle which has been treated with various reagents, 
such as alcohol, nitric acid, or solution of common salt, 
the fibrils themselves may be split up into filaments of 
extreme tenuity, each of which appears to answer to 
one of the granules of the septal lines. Such an 
isolated muscle filament looks like a very fine thread 
carrying minute beads at regular intervals. 
The septal lines resist most reagents, and remain 
visible in muscular fibres which have been subjected to 
various modes of treatment; but they may have the 
appearance of continuous bars, or be more or less com- 
pletely resolved into separate granules, according to cir- 
cumstances. On the other hand, what is to be seen in 
