diff --git a/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxd b/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxd
index 9856322d030..1ad33b94c7f 100644
--- a/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxd
+++ b/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxd
@@ -1,26 +1,8 @@
-include 'sage/ext/stdsage.pxi'
-include 'sage/ext/cdefs.pxi'
-
 from sage.data_structures.bitset cimport bitset_t
 
-cdef extern from *:
-    int __builtin_popcountl(unsigned long)
-    void *memset(void *, int, size_t)
-
-# Constants from bitset.pxd
-cdef extern from *:
-    int index_shift "(sizeof(unsigned long)==8 ? 6 : 5)"
-    unsigned long offset_mask "(sizeof(unsigned long)==8 ? 0x3F : 0x1F)"
-
-
 cdef struct binary_matrix_s:
     long n_cols
     long n_rows
-
-    # Number of "unsigned long" per row
-    long width
-
-    bitset_t * rows
+    bitset_t* rows
     
 ctypedef binary_matrix_s[1] binary_matrix_t
-
diff --git a/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxi b/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxi
index a9895ca90c0..85ab019bfb5 100644
--- a/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxi
+++ b/src/sage/data_structures/binary_matrix.pxi
@@ -17,9 +17,11 @@ a ``binary_matrix_t`` structure contains :
   containing the bits of row `i`.
 
 """
+
 from sage.data_structures.binary_matrix cimport *
 include 'sage/data_structures/bitset.pxi'
 
+
 cdef inline binary_matrix_init(binary_matrix_t m, long n_rows, long n_cols):
     r"""
     Allocates the binary matrix.
@@ -28,7 +30,6 @@ cdef inline binary_matrix_init(binary_matrix_t m, long n_rows, long n_cols):
 
     m.n_cols = n_cols
     m.n_rows = n_rows
-    m.width = (n_cols - 1)/(8*sizeof(unsigned long)) + 1
     m.rows = <bitset_t *>sage_malloc(n_rows * sizeof(bitset_t))
     if m.rows == NULL:
         raise MemoryError
@@ -101,10 +102,6 @@ cdef inline binary_matrix_print(binary_matrix_t m):
     cdef int i,j
     import sys
     for i from 0 <= i < m.n_rows:
-        # If you want to print the *whole* matrix, including the useless bits,
-        # use the following line instead
-        #
-        # for j in (m.width*8*sizeof(unsigned long)):
         for j from 0 <= j < m.n_cols:
             sys.stdout.write("1" if binary_matrix_get(m, i, j) else ".",)
         print ""