Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.Adams, George
Science
Essays on the Microscope: Containing a Practical Description of the Most Improved Microscopes, a General History of Insects, etc., etc.
Adams, George
Insects -- Early works to 1800; Microscopy -- Early works to 1800
The MUSCLES have neither the exterior form, nor the colour of those of
larger animals. In their natural state they are soft, and have the
appearance of a jelly; they are of a greyish blue, and the
silver-coloured appearance of the aerial or pulmonary vessels, which
creep over and penetrate their substance, exhibits under the microscope
a most beautiful spectacle. When the caterpillar has been soaked for
some time in spirit of wine, they lose their elasticity and
transparency, and become firm, opake, and white; the aerial vessels
disappear. At first sight they might be taken for tendons, as they are
of the same colour and possess almost the same lustre. They are
generally flat, and of an equal size throughout; the middle seldom
differs either in colour, substance, or size, from the extremities. The
ends are fixed to the skin; the rest of the muscle is generally free and
floating; several of them branch out considerably; the branches extend
sometimes so far, that it is not always easy to discover whether they
are distinct and separate muscles, or parts of another. They are of a
moderate strength; those that have been soaked in spirit of wine, when
examined by the microscope, will be found to be covered with a membrane
which may be separated from them; they then appear to consist of several
parallel bands, disposed according to the length of the muscle. These,
when divided by the assistance of very fine needles, appear to be
composed of still smaller bundles of fibres, in the same direction;
which, when examined by a very deep magnifier, and in a favourable
light, appear twisted like a small cord. The muscular fibres of the
spider, which are much larger than those of the caterpillar, are found
on examination to consist of two substances, one soft, and the other
hard; the last is twisted round the former spirally, and thus gives to
it the afore-mentioned cord-like appearance. If the muscles are
separated by means of very fine needles, in a drop of some fluid, we
find that they are not only composed of fibres, membranes, and aerial
vessels, but also of nerves; and, from the drops of oil that may be seen
floating on the fluid, that they are also furnished with many unctuous
particles. The muscles in a caterpillar are very numerous, exceeding by
much those of the human body; the reader may form some idea of their
number by inspecting Fig. 1 2 3 and 4 of Plate XII. They occupy the
greatest part of the head; there is an amazing number at the oesophagus,
the intestines, &c. the skin is as it were lined by different beds of
them, placed one under the other, and ranged with very great symmetry.
The number of muscles that our observer has been able to distinguish is
truly astonishing; he found 228 in the head, 1647 in the body, and 2066
in the intestinal tube, making in all 3941!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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