156 



COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 



of the Lobster, Spider, and Insect tribes, are striated ; while 

 the involuntary muscles of Yertebrates, and all the muscles 

 of Radiates, Worms, and Mollusks, are smooth. All mus- 

 cles attached to internal bones, or to a jointed external 

 skeleton, are striated. The voluntary muscles of Yerte- 

 brates are generally solid, and the involuntary hollow. 81 



This leads to another classification of muscles : into 

 those which are attached to solid parts within the body; 

 those which are attached to the skin or its modifications ; 

 and those having no attachments, being complete in them- 

 selves. The last are hollow or circular muscles, enclosing 

 a cavity or space, which they reduce by contraction. Ex- 

 amples of such are seen in the heart, blood-vessels, stom- 

 ach, iris of the eye, and around the mouth. In the lower 

 Invertebrates, the muscular system is a net-work of longi- 

 tudinal, transverse, and oblique fibres intimately blended 

 with the skin, and not divisible into separate muscles. As 

 in the walls of the human stomach, the fibres are usually 

 in three distinct layers. This arrangement is exhibited by 

 soft-bodied animals, like the Sea-anemone, the Snail, and 

 the Earth-worm. Four thousand muscles have been count- 

 ed in a Caterpillar. There are also "skin-muscles" in 

 the higher animals, as those by which the Horse produces 

 a twitching of the skin to shake off insects, and those by 

 which the hairs of the head and the feathers of Birds are 

 made to stand on end. Invertebrates whose skin is hard- 

 ened into a shell or crust have muscles attached to the 

 inside of such a skeleton. Thus, the Oyster has a mass 

 of parallel fibres connecting its two valves ; while in the 

 Lobster and Bee fibres go from ring to ring, both longi- 

 tudinally and spirally. The muscles of all Invertebrates 

 are straight parallel fibres, not in bundles, but distinct, 

 and usually flat, thin, and soft. 



The great majority of the muscles of Yertebrates are 

 attached to the bones, and such are voluntary. The fibres, 



