Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 17.djvu/775

Rh by chemical changes going on constantly in the substance of the muscle, by which the carbon dioxide is produced, which is shown to be a measure of the work done.

Conceding, now, that muscular contraction is of the nature of an electric discharge, by what mechanism is the contraction effected? A string of electrified masses, like a muscular fibril, would seem at first to oppose the view now advanced. Such a row of particles would indeed attract each other when electrified and shorten the length of the whole. But the force of contraction would increase as the length diminished; whereas the fact in the case of the muscle is precisely the reverse. Two theories have been advanced to account for the result. The first, proposed by Marey, likens the muscular fiber to a string of india-rubber which, when stretched, contracts upon the application of heat, thus transforming heat directly into work. The other, brought forward and strongly supported by Radcliffe, explains contraction by direct electric charge. Each fiber of the muscle together with its sheath constitutes a veritable condenser, the charge upon the exterior being positive and upon the interior negative. When a charge is communicated to the fiber, lateral compression results from the attraction of the electricities of opposite name, and, since the volume remains constant, elongation is the consequence—precisely as a band of caoutchouc, having strips of tin-foil upon its sides, may be shown to elongate when charged like a condenser. In this view of the matter the normal condition of the muscle is one of charge, of elongation. Contraction results from the simple elasticity of the muscle itself, the function of the nerve being only that of a discharger. Whether this theory represents the actual fact or not, in all its details, it is supported by the existence of rigor mortis, by the continued relaxation of muscle during the flow of the current, by the cessation of contraction on the free access of blood, and by many other phenomena otherwise difficult to explain.

From this brief review, does it not seem probable that the phenomenon of muscular contraction may be satisfactorily accounted for without the assumption of "vital irritability," so long invoked? May it not be conceded that the theory that muscular force has a purely physical origin is at least as probable as the vital theory?

Time would fail me to discuss the many other phenomena of the living body which have been found on investigation to be non-vital. Digestion, which Prout said it was impossible to believe was chemical, is now known to take place as well without the body as within it, and to result from non-vital ferments. Absorption is osmotic, and its selective power resides in the structure of the membrane and the diffusibility of the solution. Respiration is a purely chemical function. Oxyhæmoglobin is formed wherever hæmoglobin and oxygen come in contact, and the carbon dioxide of the serum exchanges with the oxygen of the air according to the law of gaseous diffusion. Circulation