Observations on the minute structure and mode of contraction of voluntary muscular fibre : being the abstract of a paper read before the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh, December 15th, 1848 / by W. Murray Dobie.

  • Dobie, William M. (William Murray), 1828-1915.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Observations on the minute structure and mode of contraction of voluntary muscular fibre : being the abstract of a paper read before the Royal Medical Society, Edinburgh, December 15th, 1848 / by W. Murray Dobie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    [From the Annals and Magazine of Naturajj-'^Iistory/o?-1849.] m^' Observations on the Minute Structure and Mode of Contraction of Voluntary Muscular Fibre ; being the abstract of a Paper read before the Rotjal Medical Society, Edinburgh, December l^th, 1848. By W. Murray Dobie, F.B.S.E. [With a Plate.] The structure of cross-striated muscle is a subject which has more or less engaged the attention of minute anatomists, since the first introduction of the microscope as a means of histological research. There is perhaps no animal texture as to the nature of which more contrary opinions have been held, or more conflicting state- ments advanced, than that of voluntary muscle, so that even at the present time it must still be considered a question by no means set at rest. My object in the present communication is to state briefly the opinions which a careful examination of this textui-e in seve- ral animals has led me to adopt, confining my observations to the elementary fibre, independent of its sarcolemmal sheath. Before proceeding to do so, I shall very shortly notice the opmions of the principal microscopic anatomists who have been employed in this investigation. Robert Hooke and Leuwenhoek were the first to examine muscular fibre with the microscope. Robert Hooke speaks of the fibres resembling a necklace of pearlit is probable that by fibres he means the ultimate fibrillee. Leuwenhoek saw and figured the transverse strise, which he regarded as only surface-markings produced by the windings of a spiral thread. He considered the fibre to be composed of glo- bules, less in size than the corpuscles of the blood. He made cross-sections of the fibres, and showed them to be polygonal and surrounded by areolar texture. Malpighi, in an isolated passage of his works, notices the transverse strise. De Heide also described and figured them.