The action of the voluntary muscles / by Louis Mackall.
- Mackall, Louis, 1801-1876.
- Date:
- [between 1860 and 1869?]
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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![Jclwit 0,f Wimlarg piitscles. By LOUIS MACKALL, M. D. [Extract from an unpublished work. ] 69. The action of the Voluntary muscles is regulated by the law of nature that we have already stated, (37.) By virtue of this law, the determination of the nerve-fluid to a muscle is im- mediately followed by the active elongation of its fibres ; the contraction of a muscle or of its fibres as immediately follows the withdrawal of the nerve-fluid. In other words, the presence of the nerve-fluid, its cause of action, is, by virtue of this law, always attended by an active elongation of the fibres of a muscle ; while the absence of a due portion of this fluid is as constantly attended by the contraction of its fibres. _ By the aid of this law of nature, we have explained, I think, in a plain, intelligible, and rational manner, the phenomena pre- sented in the action of the involuntary muscles, that are placed about the walls of the tubes or hollow organs ; by the same aid, the phenomena presented in the action of the voluntary muscles I'ii'tionally and intelligibly explained. _ 70. The minds of Physiologists of the present day are so fully mipressed with the erroneous belief, so long inculcated in the books that the active state of a muscle is that of contraction, and that the elongation of its fibres, (a state of which they pos- sess a veiy imperfect and false notion,) which they are pleased nrnnnlifJn P*^ssive State, that the converse of this with nreiudiel' presented above will be at first regarded by them 0 thisTbi . 't ^‘^ture in relation L ext nle '^PPl'^'^tion is attended to, in prevail over error f„ the human mbd ’ “ ''](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22380838_0003.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
