66 Sir Everard Home on the structure of a muscular fibre 
found that in this recent state the fibres are held so firmly 
together by the mucus which surrounds them, and forms 
them into fasciculi, that it was only under water he could 
separate an integrant fibre for examination in the field of 
the microscope. 
In its mechanism, he found it to correspond with the 
nervous fibre of a ganglion, differing only in the size of the 
globules, which were larger than those of the fibre in the 
ganglion in the proportion of parts of an inch to 
and — - — parts. 
4,oco 1 
The elastic transparent jelly uniting the globules together, 
had not the same elasticity as in the nervous fibre, so that 
it could not be drawn out from the contracted state to double 
its length without breaking. 
The muscular fibre of a trout was treated in the same 
way, and the result was the same ; the fibres were however 
more brittle than those in the bullock's neck. 
From these facts, in addition to those communicated in 
the examination of the structure of ganglions, it is at last 
ascertained, that the structure of the fibres of nerves in 
general, and those peculiar to ganglions, as well as those that 
compose muscles, is so far the same, that they consist of 
single rows of globules united together by an elastic gelati- 
nous transparent matter ; they differ however in the size of 
the globules, and the degree of elasticity of the medium by 
which they are united ; so that a less power will elongate a 
nerve than the fibres of a muscle, and to a greater extent, 
and it will restore itself with more velocity to a state of rest. 
This structure of nerves and muscles, I consider to be 
