Note 36 — Chapter IV · THE PROPERTIES AND FUNCTIONS.

Just as there go other materials besides canvas to make a sail, and others besides iron to make a windlass, so there go other tissues besides the muscular to form a muscle—there is the membranous envelope, the nerve, the blood-vessels, the lymphatics, the tendon, and the fat. Even in Contraction there is another property involved besides the Contractility of the muscular element, namely, the Elasticity of the fibrous wall of the muscular tube; but Contractility is the dominant property, and determines the speciality of the function.