120 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
from Summer-and Winter-caught herrings, and also (for com- 
parison) a section of the skin of the cod. All three sections — 
are made transversely to the axis of the body of the fish, so that 
the muscle fibres are cut transversely. They are all drawn 
to (approximately) the same scale. 
Fig. 1 represents the superficial tissues near the lateral 
line region. The skin is represented by the dermis only, the 
epidermis having mostly been removed with the scales (which 
cut very badly). Beneath the skin is a thick layer of adipose 
connective tissue—only the outlines of the fat-cells can be seen 
in the section, the oil-globules having been dissolved out in 
the process of fixation and clearing. 
Beneath this, again, is the band of red muscle fibres, so 
characteristic of Clupeoid fishes in general. These fibres are 
arranged in compact bundles; they are about one half the © 
diameter of the fibres making up the pale muscles which com- 
pose the bulk of the flesh of the fish, and they have a rather 
different staining reaction. They have also different con- 
tractile properties.* 
Beneath this is another layer of‘‘ blubber,” that is, of con- 
nective tissue loaded with fat, and below this, again, is the 
ordinary musculature of the trunk of the fish. This consists — 
of relatively thick fibres, staining far more lightly with Mallory 
than do the red fibres. It is divided up, in a very complex 
way, by the dissepiments of fibrous tissues that separate the 
myotomes. 
Between the fibres and the bundles of fibres, of both red 
and pale muscles, is also fat-laden connective tissue. | 
Fig. 2 represents a section made through the same region 
in the flesh of a Winter-caught herring. Just the same parts 
are indicated except that the layers of ‘‘ blubber”’ are absent, 
and there is, on the whole, less adipose tissue between the 
bundles of pale and red muscles fibres. 
* See Stirling, Ann. Rept. Fishery Board for Scotland. IV, p. 166 (1886). 
