360 MANIPULATION. 



a small quantity of the white of an egg, and be torn as gently 

 as possible with the dissecting needles ; a thin cover may be 

 laid over it previous to its being viewed. As soon as the true 

 structure has been well seen, water, ether, and other fluids 

 may be added, to show how much they change its original 

 appearance. 



Muscle. — This may be selected from an animal at a later 

 period after death than nerve (unless the changes it undergoes 

 in contracting require to be examined), as its peculiar charac- 

 ters are much more permanent. A small portion, freed from 

 all cellular tissue, may be removed from the mass, and 

 placed on a slide with some kind of fluid ; the slide may then 

 be laid on the stage plate of the dissecting microscope, and the 

 fibres torn asunder by the needles, as in the case of nerve ; 

 if the parts require to be preserved in fluid as an object for 

 future examination, the fibres may be laid on the slide without 

 any moisture being present, and after the separation has been 

 carried as far as necessary, then the preservative fluid may be 

 added, and the cover laid on and sealed down with the gold- 

 size in the usual way ; when this is done there will be very 

 little risk of the preparation shifting its place, which would 

 happen if it were removed to another slide. The nerves of 

 muscle may be displayed in a thin layer of delicate fibres, 

 which form a portion of the abdominal wall of a frog; by 

 employing the compressor, they may also be seen with the 

 capillary blood vessels as well in some of the very thin recti- 

 muscles of the eyes of small birds ; for this purpose the eye 

 should be removed as soon after death as possible, and the 

 most transparent of these muscles dissected away, and laid 

 between glasses, or in one of the forms of compressors described 

 in page 137 ; if this be managed carefully, the blood will be 

 seen in the vessels, and a good view will be obtained of the 

 comparative sizes of the nervous and muscular fibres of the 

 capillaries, and even of the blood particles themselves. The 

 mode of connection of the muscular fibres with those of ten- 

 don, may also be very well studied in a preparation of this 

 kind. The largest muscular fibres will be found in fishes and 



