An essay on muscular action and its conditions : the ninth of a series of articles published in the Saint Louis medical journal on "life" / by J.H. Watters.

  • Watters, J. H. (John H.)
Date:
[1857]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on muscular action and its conditions : the ninth of a series of articles published in the Saint Louis medical journal on "life" / by J.H. Watters. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    from this experiment are the same as to the first. The whole weight of this rests upon the absurd hypothesis, that nervous force is excited by a stimulus above the section, and propagated through the nerves to parts below. If the conductor placed in the section united the proper conducting portion of the nerve fibres, oxydation and contraction of the muscle would result in consequence of this alone, and it would itself be con- sidered a stimulus; if it does not so unite the nerves, no mechanical impression above could induce the effect. But this conductor placed in the section so connects with the cel- lular tissue, surrounding fluids, &c, as to conduct electricity externally applied. As all the objections against the identity of nerve force and electricity contain the same fallacies, we need not dwell upon them more, since it will be apparent already that these objections do not apply to the theory, that muscular motor force is electricity, and is evolved in the oxydation of the mus- cle. Upon this theory, it would be expected, too, that me- chanical and chemical stimulation'''' would occasion muscular action. 'Mechanical impressions will induce the contraction of muscles; so the circuit of a galvanic battery is Completed by mechanical impressions. If the conductors, for instance, terminate within a short distance of each other, the circuit might be completed by the point of a scalpel; and thus, to us, the phraseology of physiologists, the peculiar wire influence or agency excited by the point of a scalpel, is transmitted to the parts below, to produce or excite galvanic battery ac- tion ; and, as the power which resisted chemical action in the battery is thus metamorphosed into gross motion, oxydation of the zinc results as a necessary consequence! The nervous agency and electricity are, therefore, not identical; but the agency of the nervous system is to place the oxydation of the muscles, and consequent muscular action, under the influence and control of certain internal and external conditions. We will now consider these conditions as illustrated in the pheno- mena of muscular action. Muscular action, depending upon oxydation, may be regulated by two classes of conditions, viz : those connected with the nervous system, and those connected with the oxydizing fluid. One or the other, or both of these