Page:Philosophical Transactions - Volume 095.djvu/15

Rh of their length, and of returning again to their former state of contraction.

This elasticity, however, appears to belong to the enveloping reticular or cellular membrane, and it may be safely assumed that the intrinsic matter of muscle is not elastic.

The attraction of cohesion, in the parts of muscle, is strongest in the direction of the fibres, it being double that of the contrary, or transverse direction.

When muscles are capable of reiterated contractions and relaxations, they are said to be alive, or to possess irritability. This quality fits the organ for its functions. Irritability will be considered, throughout the present lecture, as a quality only.

When muscles have ceased to be irritable, their cohesive attraction in the direction of their fibres is diminished, but it remains unaltered in the transverse direction.

The hinder limbs of a frog attached to the pelvis being stripped of the skin, one of them was immersed in water at 115° of, during two minutes, when it ceased to be irritable. The thigh bones were broken in the middle, without injuring the muscles, and a scale affixed to the ancle of each limb: a tape passed between the thighs was employed to suspend the apparatus. Weights were gradually introduced into each scale, until, with five pounds avoirdupois, the dead thigh was ruptured across the fleshy bellies of its muscles.

The irritable thigh sustained six pounds weight avoirdupois, and was ruptured in the same manner. This experiment was repeated on other frogs, where one limb had been killed by a watery solution of opium, and on another where essential oil of cherry laurel was employed: in each experiment, the