VOLUNTARY MUSCLE IN THE LIVING BODY. 
71 
by a contraction consisting of an absolutely simultaneous and uniform approximation 
of all its elementary parts to one another, and supposing for a moment that though 
the contraction was everywhere present, yet some feebleness of structure, or trifling 
diminution of the contractile force at one part, determined a rupture to take place 
there, the resulting appearances would necessarily be altogether different from those 
that have been detailed. The rupture would be definite and abrupt, without exten- 
sive stretching and consequent disorganization, and the whole retracting fibre would 
bear traces of an uniform and universal contraction, instead of an unequal and par- 
tial one, very limited in extent, and similar in every essential character to that which 
I have delineated in dying muscle*. 
2. There is no Repellent Force between the Contractile Elements of Muscular Fibre. 
When muscle is taken from the body after all irritability has subsided, and when 
no stimulant has been previously applied capable of disordering its action during the 
rigor mortis, the distance between the transverse striae will usually be found nearly 
uniform at every part ; but when partial contractions occur in a fragment that has been 
removed prior to the cessation of its irritability, the contracted parts remain perma- 
nently distinguished from the rest of the primitive fasciculus, by the closeness of their 
transverse striae. In the former case, every primitive fasciculus having its extremities 
held apart by its proper antagonists, the contractile efforts constituting the rigor mortis 
are uniformly and gradually expended, and no inordinate amount of contraction can 
leave its vestiges in any part ; but, in the latter, no such antagonizing power being 
exerted, the contractions remain wherever and to whatever degree they may have 
been present. 
This explanation involves and rests upon the above principle, and it follows, that 
whatever prevents a muscular fibre from being elongated, when its contractile 
energy subsides, must cause it to retain that arrangement of its parts which was 
assumed during contraction. Now, in the examples under consideration, the rupture 
prevented such an elongation, and the result is, that the organ has been , as it were, 
surprised in the very act of contraction, and retains in its structure the permanent 
impression of that act , — a view strongly corroborated by the uniformity of the distance 
between the transverse striae in those muscles, which had been likewise convulsed, 
but had escaped rupture. 
It may be further remarked, that the occurrence of ecchymoses entirely accords 
with the idea of partial contractions, while it is inconsistent with that of an universal 
one, for how could the vessels be torn in tetanic spasm if this were merely a strong and 
enduring, but uniform approximation of all the elements of the primitive fasciculi to 
one another? They would be compressed indeed, but not dragged asunder ; whereas, 
such would be the natural effect of excessive partial contractions, oscillating from 
place to place, and continually drawing in opposite directions, and in an irregular 
manner, the uncontracted portions ; for the capillaries take a longitudinal course be- 
* Loc. cit., Plate XIX. figs. 83. 88., No. 3. &c. 
