HISTOLOGY OF THE STRIPED MUSCLE-FIBRE. 
377 
As the fibres are rendered soft by the method of preparation 
their size and the size of their elements varies with the pres- 
sure of the coverslip ; hence measurements are of little or no 
value. 
Identity of Network with Schafer’s Muscle-rods. 
We cannot but be struck by the resemblance of the appear- 
ances brought out by gold staining with those described by 
Schafer 1 in the living fibre as muscle-rods. The two views 
differ, however, on two points : (1) Schafer describes in a 
transverse section of the fibre a bright ground substance with 
a number of minute specks or dots ; no appearance of a net- 
work. (2) He considers that there is typically a double 
transverse row of dots in the middle of each bright stripe. 
Concerning the appearance on transverse section we 
must not forget that Schafer’s conclusions were drawn from 
the living fibre in optical transverse section. Probably he 
saw all that it is possible to see of the transverse network in 
the living fibre, namely, the thickenings or dots at the nodal 
points, the fine network, seen so plainly in a transverse view 
when stained with gold, not being visible in the fresh fibre 
examined in this way. 
Is there a single or a double row of dots in the middle 
of the bright stripe ? In the fresh fibre sometimes a single 
sometimes a double row of dots is seen, the two appearances 
often alternating with a higher or a lower focus. The same 
variation is seen in alcohol and some other preparations. 
In the gold preparations, when the fine granular disc or 
transverse network is seen perfectly edgeways and in focus, it 
appears invariably made up of a single transverse line of 
dots. 
When the transverse network is not seen perfectly edge- 
ways, through not lying in a plane quite at right angles to the 
longitudinal axis, but slightly obliquely or in perspective, it 
1 ‘ Phil. Trans.,’ xii, 1873, E. A. Schafer “ On the Minute Structure of 
the Leg Muscles of the Water-beetle.” 
