The Croonian lectures on muscular movements and their representation in the central nervous system ; delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, June, 1903 / Charles E. Beevor.

  • Beevor, Charles, E. (Charles Edward), 1854-1908.
Date:
1904
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Croonian lectures on muscular movements and their representation in the central nervous system ; delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London, June, 1903 / Charles E. Beevor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    time abduct the shoulder and thereby bring into action other muscles than those concerned directly with pronation. The means which I have used for determining whether a muscle is taking part in any given movement are inspection and palpation either of the muscle as a whole or of its tendon. I have examined both normal people and patients who have lost the use of some of their muscles. § 5. The movements have been performed in three ways : (1) By the person moving the limb without any extra weight. (2) By moving the limb loaded with different Aveights. (3) By attempting to move the limb which is fixed by an opposing force. The first procedure gives the minimum work which the muscles entering into any movement are called upon to do. The least possible work that a group of muscles can do is to overcome the inertia of a joint. This can be accomplished in the elbow by placing the upper arm on a support in a horizontal position and then flexing or extending the forearm on it in a horizontal plane, so that by this means the action of gravity can be neutralised. Or with the upper arm resting horizontally the forearm can be placed vertically, and the movement of pronation and supination can be carried out. The minimum degree of work in certain positions is that afforded by lifting the limb against gravity, as in flexing the forearm when the humerus is in the vertical position alongside the trunk. The third procedure gives the strongest work that the muscles can perform, and as by reason of the fixation of the limb there is no alteration in the angle of the joint, the error is avoided of assuming that the tightening of a tendon from the stretching of a passive muscle is evidence of contraction of the muscle. The second procedure would give the intermediate conditions between the two extremes of maximum and minimum work. The amount of work done by the muscles was measured by spring balances or by the traction scale of a clinical dynamometer. § 6. With the exception of Winslow* and Duchenne I am unable to find that writers on anatomy as a rule take their knowledge of the action of muscles from the living subject. James Benignus Winslow, whom Duchenne rightly styles the Admirable Winslow, and who, although his name has an English sound, was Professor * ' An Anatomical Exposition of the Structure of the Human Body/ by James Benignus Winslow. Translated from the French original by G. Douglas, M.D. Fourth edition, corrected, 1756, vol. i, sect, iii, No. 784.