mucous c

A c. which contains or secretes mucus, muscle c. One of the cellular elements of muscular ti ue characterized by po e ing the power of contractility. Muscle c's are of three varieties: the skeletal or voluntary cell, which is striated longitudinally and transversely, and is multinuclear; the cardiac c, which is similarly striated, but is involuntary and mononuclear; the smooth or involuntary muscle cell, muscular fiber c's. The name given by Kolliker (1848) to the contractile c's of an elongated spindle shape, forming fasciculi or continuous membranes, and found in the alimentary canal, genito-urinary organs, blood ve els, and, in general, the organs of vegetative life. The contractile fiber c's contain one or more nuclei, are inclosed in a delicate sheath, and are connected one to another by an intercellular cement similar to that uniting epithelial c's. Sometimes they are forked or very irregular in outline, and under some circumstances the c. body shows a faint longitudinal striation, and the c. membrane a transverse folding. In action they are slow and wholly involuntary, nail c. One of the horny, irregularly polygonal or flattened, mostly nucleated c's forming the nails (ungues); they are modified epidermal c's, and, while tened on the surface of hard and flat the nail, are soft and rounded next the corium. naked c. A c. without a c. membrane, as the white blood corpuscles, needle c's. The