The action of the voluntary muscles / by Louis Mackall.

  • Mackall, Louis, 1801-1876.
Date:
[between 1860 and 1869?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The action of the voluntary muscles / by Louis Mackall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    action heretofore presented may be repeated in connection with the instance before us, 74. The suggestive impressions, appointed to precede the active state of this organ, having been duly received, the anima determines the nerve-fluid, in an extra supply, to its fibres through the sensory and motory nerves of this organ. In consequence, the proper longitudinal and other fibres of the organ become actively elongated, together with the fibres about the walls of the vessels and sinuses, in which there is an increased flow and accumulation of blood. With this accumulation of blood there is established the special circulation of the nerve-fluid to this point; the supply of this fluid is thus further enlarged, and the action of all the fibres is exalted to its extreme limit. This latter state of the organ is expressed by the term “Venereal orgasm.” 76. In this representation of the action of muscles, there are three points to which we desire to direct attention : the first is, the propriety of regarding the organ in question as a muscle attached at one extremity by two heads to the ossa pubis and ischia; the second is, the active elongation of the proper fibres of this muscle ; and the third is, the stiffening or rigidity of the same fibres when in action. The two latter points are particu- larly worthy of attention, as they occur in every instance of muscular action, and, what is very strange, have been entirely overlooked by physiologists. 76. The Ciliary processes are the small muscles or bundles of muscular fibres that are attached by one extremity to the mar- gin or verge of the opening into the eye, called the pupil; and are so arranged that by their extension the pupil is diminished or the opening narrowed, and by their retraction the pupil is enlarged or the opening widened. Light is appointed to be the appropriate suggestive impression to precede the action of these muscles. When the eye, in its normal condition in the living body, is withdrawn from the light, the mind, not having received this suggestive impression, does not call into action these muscles, and they are consequently retracted, and the pupil is enlarged ; but when the eye is brought into the light and the impression is made, the mind determines the nerve-fluid to these muscles, and they become extended in proportion to the supply of this fluid ; by their combined action the pupil is diminished or narrowed, so as to exclude such quantity of light as might be iniurious to the nnfip Y\n\'\rrk ^ Here again we have a Vital erection, in the essential condi- tions the active elongation, and apparently the stiffening of the fibres ; and it is worthy of remark liere, that in inflammation of these and the adjoining parts, as in iritis, there is established the special circulation of the nerve-fluid to these fibres, and they