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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    so situated in the aortic sinuses that blood cannot be forced into them during the systole of the ventricles, but during the diastole by the contraction of the aorta. According to the experiments of Dr. J. lleid, the rhythmical movements con- tinue in vacuo; but this is negatived by the experiments ot Drs. Mitchell and Bache, o! Philadelphia ; and it seems clearly established, apart from the fact that the action of a muscle is in proportion to its oxydation, that the presence of oxygen, or of some agent capable of producing molicular change, is essen- tial to muscular action. No one would contend that a per- fectly dry muscular fibre would undergo rhythmical move- ments ; when fibres separated from the body undergo such actions, they may be charged with the fluid which gives them moisture, of which it is discharged by the contraction, and again charged with during relaxation. I conclude tha*t the idea of irritability, excitability, or motil- ity, as a power inherent in the muscular tissue, or as derived from the nervous system, is a fiction ; that the idea that any physical power can be dormant or inactive, and can be stimu- lated or excited by any agency whatever, is an illusion ; that the idea that an impression, agency or influence, is trans- mitted from the nervous centres to the muscles to excite them, is a false point of view from which the phenomena have been observed. I conclude that oxydation of the muscular tissue is the source of muscular power, and that all conditions which regulate muscular action are conditions to Fegnlate this oxy- dation ; that when permanent contraction is caused by elec- tricity, the oxydation of the muscle is substituted by the oxy- dation of zinc. 1 conclude, that upon the supposition that oxydation is the source of muscular power, the phenomena of muscular action may be explained as far as our present know- ledge of the laws of physical agents and of the minute struc- ture or arrangement of the muscular and nervous tissues will permit; that it is not philosophic to assume peculiar torces and agencies till our knowledge of these laws and of the special adjustments in the organism justifies such an assumption ; that in the present state of our knowledge, such assumptions are even as presumptuous as unphilosophic,—presumptuous, because based upon an assumed knowledge which we do not