Abstract
LONDON Royal Society, February 3.—Dr. Klein communicated a paper by John Haycraft, Senior Physiological Demonstrator in the University of Edinburgh, on the cause of the striation of voluntary muscular fibre. The author showed that all the cross striæ observed are due not to any differences of structure along the fibre, but simply to the shape of the fibre itself. The fibre is not a smooth cylinder, but is ampullated, alternate ridges and depressions occurring with beautiful regularity across its length. The striæ correspond with these in position, and are caused by their action on the transmitted light. He showed theoretically how this must be so, and illustrated it with a model of the same shape but of uniform structure, which exhibited down to the minutest detail the cross striæ seen in the muscle itself. He then showed the true explanation of the action of staining agents and of polarised light.
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Societies and Academies . Nature 23, 474–476 (1881). https://doi.org/10.1038/023474b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/023474b0