The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of Physiology — John Shaqi
The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of PhysiologyHill, Alex
Science
The Body at Work: A Treatise on the Principles of Physiology
Hill, Alex
Physiology
If a frog’s muscle, cut out of the body, has been made to contract
until it refuses to work any longer, it again responds to stimulation
after a solution of salt has been passed through its bloodvessels.
The salt-solution brings no food; the only thing it can do is to
wash away waste products. But this experiment upon a tired, isolated
muscle does not necessarily throw light upon the nature of fatigue in
muscles under normal conditions. The isolated muscle is using up, in
contracting, food which it has stored. Cut off from the circulation, it
has no means of getting rid of the lactic acid and other products into
which food is changed. They may well have accumulated to a poisonous
extent long before all the food has been used up. Hardly more cogent
is the argument based upon the benefit which a tired man experiences
from hot baths, massage, and the like. They take away the feeling
of tiredness, but it does not follow that this result is due to the
removal of waste products. Quickening the circulation of blood brings
about renewal of the lymph. Renewal of lymph means fresh supplies of
food as well as removal of waste products. Even human muscles are not
perfect as machines. They will not work for an unlimited spell. There
comes a time when they must have rest. Something goes wrong in the
admirable adjustment which has hitherto provided exactly the right
amount of food and exactly the necessary freedom from the products of
action. A feeling of fatigue is the signal that the apparatus is not
in a condition to work longer; but whether this feeling is due to a
dislocation of the balance of supply and loss, or to some deterioration
of the apparatus which calls for rest and renovation, it is at present
impossible to say. It is not due to the exhaustion of muscle food. A
more powerful stimulus, the urgency of fright or some other strong
emotion, or an electric current applied directly to the muscle or
its nerve, will still induce vigorous contraction. The muscles of a
hare that has been coursed until it can run no farther still contain
glycogen, muscle food.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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