Muscular

“ Indeed, all that I want to bring about muscular contraction is, not a metamorphosis of muscle which issues in the development of muscular force, nor a transformation of heat into muscular force, but simply a supply of electricity during the state of muscular inaction which will counteract the tendency which the muscle always has to contract as an elastic body. ”

“ Every muscle, in fact, consists in the first place of a mass of muscular substance. This muscular substance is made up of an immense number of soft strings or fibres, all running in one direction and done up into large and small bundles. At either end of the muscle these soft muscular fibres are joined on to firmer but thinner fibres of connective or fibrous{29} tissue. And these thinner but firmer fibres make up the cord or band of tendon with which the muscle finishes off at either end. ”

“ We must try to discover, for instance, what there is in common between the muscle in repose and the muscle in contraction, and to perceive in the muscular tonus a kind of bridge thrown between these two conditions. The functional activity would be uninterrupted, but it would have its degrees of activity. The muscular tonus would be the permanent condition of an activity which is capable only of being considerably raised or lowered. ”

“ Further, inasmuch as muscular movement is one of the chief ends, or the most important means to the chief ends of animal life, we find the animal body abounding in motor mechanisms, in which the prime mover is muscular contraction, while the machinery is supplied by complicated arrangements of muscles with such indifferent tissues as bone, cartilage, and tendon. ”

“ These are made up of different kinds of muscle cells and act in different ways to cause motion. The [pg 244] striated muscular tissue far exceeds the others in amount and forms all those muscles that can be felt from the surface of the body. The non-striated muscle is found in the walls of the food canal, blood vessels, air passages, and other tubes of the body; while the muscular tissue of the heart is confined entirely to that organ. ”

“ Most of the bodily movements, such as affect the limbs and the body as a whole, are performed by muscles under our control. These muscles make up the red flesh or lean parts, which, together with the fat, clothe the bony framework, and give to it general form and proportion. We call these muscular tissues voluntary muscles, because they usually act under the control of the will.
The internal organs, as those of digestion, secretion, circulation, and respiration, perform their functions by means of muscular activity of another kind, that is, by that of muscles not under our control. ”

“ Myology is that branch of anatomy which treats of the muscles. The muscles are formed of bundles of reddish fibres, endowed with the property of contractility. In the body we find two kinds of muscular tissue, called voluntary and involuntary muscle. ”

“ From these facts, as well as from the great force with which the muscle contracts, one must conclude that the muscle is a transformer of energy—that within its protoplasm, chemical changes take place whereby the potential energy of oxygen and food is converted into the kinetic energy of motion.
Fig. 113—Capillaries of muscles. Plan of Using Muscular Force.—Two difficulties have to be overcome in the using of muscular force in the body. The first of these is due to the fact that the muscles exert their force only when they contract. They can pull but not push. ”

“ All manner of movements are produced by muscles pulling sometimes with and sometimes against each other. But you will find when you come to examine them that all the movements of which your body is capable depend at bottom on this—that certain muscular fibres, in obedience to a something reaching them through their nerves, contract, shorten, and grow thick, and so pull their one end towards the other, and that to do this they must be continually supplied with pure blood. ”

“ Here, again, do we find the richness of feeling associated without exception in races with a fine development of the neuro-muscular and vaso-motor systems. This is related to muscular exercise. When we come to the regal faculty, the will, our modern psychology again tells us that will must express itself in terms of muscular activity, and that power of the will in its origin bears a relation to firmness of muscle, to power of muscular contraction. ”

“ To begin a general training or muscular development of the body, it should be borne in mind that it is the muscles that hold the body up and not the bones. Both are essential to the human construction, but the muscles play a more important part in the bodily movements than the bones. Few people consider that to stand or sit properly 120the muscles of the body must be trained. ”

“ Having thus outlined the conditions under which the muscular machine performs its work, we have now to consider briefly the external mechanisms with the aid of which muscular energy is utilized. Of course, the simplest application of this power, and the one universally [53] employed in the animal world is that in which a direct push or pull is given to the substance, the position of which it is desired to change. We have already pointed out that there is no essential difference between pushing and pulling. The fact receives another illustration in considering the muscular mechanism. ”

“ Structure of Voluntary Muscles. The main substance which clothes the bony framework of the body, and which forms about two-fifths of its weight, is the voluntary muscular tissue. These muscles do not cover and surround the bones in continuous sheets, but consist of separate bundles of flesh, varying in size and length, many of which are capable of independent movement.
Each muscle has its own set of blood-vessels, lymphatics, and nerves. It is the blood that gives the red color to the flesh. ”

“ The prodigies of force that astonish us are due to a very simple cause, and can be accounted for under the common law that, of two muscles having the same mass and the same energy, the shorter one is capable of raising the more considerable weight. We may figure muscular fiber as a spiral spring, habitually relaxed, which, under nervous action, flies back upon itself. ”

“ Now every organ in the body is either in itself a muscle or a system of muscles, or is controlled by muscles. That is to say, none of the infinite processes incidental not only to any movement, but to even perfectly passive life, are independent of muscular action, automatic it may be, and unconscious or sub-conscious, but still muscular.
The action of the heart itself, for instance, which is, in ordinary circumstances, entirely automatic and absolutely essential to life, consists in the alternate contraction and expansion of muscle, which sends the blood to all parts of the body ”

“ For if anything be obvious to introspection it is that the degree of strength of our muscular contractions is completely revealed to us by afferent feelings coming from the muscles themselves and their insertions, from the vicinity of the joints, and from the general fixation of the larynx, chest, face, and body, in the phenomenon of effort, objectively considered. ”

“ The power of the heart, and the healthy tone of the venous system, are both related to a moderate amount of muscular exercise, and these are all largely facts in the hygiene of the brain.
5. Muscular contraction appears to be closely related to the genesis of all forms of psychic activity. Not only do the vaso-motor and muscular systems express the thinking, feeling, and willing of the individual, but the muscular apparatus itself appears to be a fundamental part of the apparatus for these psychical states. Without the muscular system, material for psychic activity can not be secured. ”

“ The muscular system is highly symmetrical and simple: along all eleven segments, there is a narrow, medial, ventral and dorsal clear space; on both sides of which space there is a band of longitudinal muscles, which, though encroaching on the two sides, and rather largely on the dorso-lateral sides, may be called the ventral and dorsal muscles. ”

“ If it were possible to collect all the results of the muscular activity of men, from the beginning of civilization until the present, and likewise all the results of the muscular activity of women for the same period, we should reason instantaneously, from these phenomena, to the superior quality of masculine muscle. We should need no resurrection of dead men and women to demonstrate the difference. ”

“ Each muscle gives rise to a special sensation capable of augmenting or of diminishing, so that the totality of our muscular sensations will depend upon as many variables as we have muscles. From this point of view, motor space would have as many dimensions as we have muscles. ”

“ This expansion, as in the case of all other movements, can be effected only by muscles, or, to speak more accurately, by neuro-muscular mechanisms. Exactly what muscles are employed may be learned from the accompanying illustrations and by observation. While it is highly important to know in a general way which muscles are chiefly concerned, or, rather, where they are situated, it cannot be deemed essential for every reader to learn their names, attachments, etc., down to the minutest details, as in the case of a student of anatomy proper. ”

“ Success in muscle-reading depends upon the powers of the principal and upon the susceptibility of the subject. The latter must be capable of mental concentration; he must exert no muscular self-control; he must obey his every impulse. Under these conditions, the phenomena are in accordance with known laws of physiology. On [Pg 43] the part of the principal, muscle-reading consists of an acute perception of the slight action of another’s muscles. ”

“ None but an anatomist can duly appreciate the variety of separate actions, on which depend the motions of a single limb, and the consequently numerous opportunities of rest which the muscles enjoy. To the superficial and unscientific observer, an arm is an arm; it is a single member which may be fatigued by a day’s work and recruited by a night’s rest. But to the anatomist the arm is a complex object, and its muscular energy is that of its component muscles, each of which may be fatigued by a minute’s action and recruited by a minute’s repose. ”

“ The muscular differences noted in individuals are in reality the difference in the nerve cells, the action of the muscle indicating the activity of the central nervous system. When the muscles are being exercised the nerve cells are being exercised, and the effect of exercise on the nerve cells indirectly determines the muscular activity. ”

“ The degree of rapidity of muscular contractions is greatly subordinate to exercise. The habit397 of making certain muscles act renders them more quick in their contraction; for example, walking which accustoms us to contract alternately the extensors and the flexors of the lower extremities, fits us wonderfully for swiftness in running. When any man practises for a little time this last exercise, he soon attains the greatest rapidity of which his muscular system is capable. ”

“ You will have a sense of strength in this region, and this is absolutely the case in so far as the external muscles of this part of the body are concerned. But the more valuable gain will be in the strength of the organs themselves. These organs are partly muscular in character, and they are firm and strong, or soft and flaccid, in accordance with the intelligent consideration that they receive and the amount of exercise given them. ”

“ The muscles require to be educated, or trained. The power of giving different intonations in reading, speaking, singing, the varied and rapid executions in penmanship, and all mechanical or agricultural employments, depend, in a measure, upon the education of the muscles. In the first effort of muscular education, the contractions of the muscular fibres are irregular and feeble, as may be seen when the child begins to walk, or in the first efforts of penmanship. ”

“ From what we have thus far said, upon the muscular properties and sympathies, it is easily seen that the vital activity must be in general much greater in the muscles than in the organs previously examined in this volume; thus all their affections begin to take a peculiar character that distinguishes them from those of these organs; they are much more prompt and rapid. ”

“ To train all the muscles of the body uniformly as a beginning of muscular or physical development, prepares a foundation for any special muscle training that may be desired, and guarantees success where failure would most undoubtedly result from the special training first. All the muscles of the body are interdependent. One of them cannot be trained alone without affecting another one, or drawing upon it for material to supply the waste already spoken of. But when all are trained, then it is easy to pass to the training of any special muscle. ”

“ The muscles are like the various bits of machinery which go to make up a steam engine. In performing their work they produce heat and motion. The fuel which supplies this force is taken into the body as food, prepared for use in the intestinal tract, and from there carried by the blood to be stored up in the muscles and various tissues as latent force. Through the circulation of the blood the whole body is heated by muscular exercise. It stands to reason that continual exercise of a certain kind will develop certain muscles. ”