Identifier: textbookofphysi01fost (find matches)
Title: A text book of physiology
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Foster, M. (Michael), Sir, 1836-1907
Subjects:
Publisher: London, Macmillan and Co.
Contributing Library: Columbia University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Open Knowledge Commons

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tirely destitute of nerves, such as thelower end of the sartorius of the frog, may be stimulated directly, withcontractions as a result; that the chemical substances which act as stimuliwhen applied directly to muscles, differ somewhat from those which act asstimuli to nerves, and lastly, that a portion of muscle-fibre quite free fromnerves may be seen under the microscope to contract. In the succeedingportions of this work abundant evidence will be afforded that the activityof contractile protoplasm is in no way essentially dependent on the presenceof nervous elements. The Phenomena of a simple Muscular Contraction. If the far end of the nerve of a muscle-nerve preparation (thegastrocnemius for instance of the frog with the attached sciatic nervedissected out), Figs. 1 and 2, be laid on the electrodes of an induction-machine, the passage of a single induction-shock (either making or1 Kuhne, Untersuch. Physiol. Inst. Ileidelberg, Bd. n. (1878) p. 187. 40 MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. (Book i.
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Fig. 1. Diagram illustrating Apparatus arranged for ExperIMents with Muscle and Nerve. Chap, ii.) THE CONTRACTILE TISSUES. 41 A. The moist chamber containing the muscle-nerve preparation. (The muscle-nerveand electrode-holder are shewn on a larger scale in Fig. 2.) The muscle m,supported by the clamp cl, which firmly grasps the end of the femur /, is con-nected by means of the S hook s and a thread with the lever I, placed below themoist chamber. The nerve n, with the portion of the spinal column n stillattached to it, is placed on the electrode-holder el, in contact with the wires x, y.The whole of the interior of the glass ease gl. is kept saturated with moisture, andthe electrode-holder is so constructed that a piece of moistened blotting paper maybe placed on it without coming into contact with the nerve. B. The revolving cylinder bearing the smoked paper on which the lever writes. C. Du Bois-Eeymonds key arranged for short-circuiting. The wires x and y of theelectrode-holder are

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