A Practical Physiology Part 7

67. The Involuntary Muscles. These muscles consist of ribbon-shaped bands which surround hollow fleshy tubes or cavities. We might compare them to India rubber rings on rolls of paper. As they are never attached to bony levers, they have no need of tendons.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 31.--A, Muscular Fiber, showing Stripes, and Nuclei, b and c. (Highly magnified.)]

The microscope shows these muscles to consist not of fibers, but of long spindle-shaped cells, united to form sheets or bands. They have no sarcolemma, stripes, or cross markings like those of the voluntary muscles. Hence their name of _non-striated_, or _unstriped_, and _smooth_ muscles.

The involuntary muscles respond to irritation much less rapidly than do the voluntary. The wave of contraction pa.s.ses over them more slowly and more irregularly, one part contracting while another is relaxing. This may readily be seen in the muscular action of the intestines, called vermicular motion. It is the irregular and excessive contraction of the muscular walls of the bowels that produces the cramp-like pains of colic.

The smooth muscles are found in the tissues of the heart, lungs, blood-vessels, stomach, and intestines. In the stomach their contraction produces the motion by which the food is churned about; in the arteries and veins they help supply the force by which the blood is driven along, and in the intestines that by which the partly digested food is mainly kept in motion.

Thus all the great vital functions are carried on, regardless of the will of the individual, or of any outward circ.u.mstances. If it required an effort of the will to control the action of the internal organs we could not think of anything else. It would take all our time to attend to living. Hence the care of such delicate and important machinery has wisely been put beyond our control.

Thus, too, these muscles act instinctively without training; but the voluntary need long and careful education. A babe can use the muscles of swallowing on the first day of its life as well as it ever can. But as it grows up, long and patient education of its voluntary muscles is needed to achieve walking, writing, use of musical instruments, and many other acts of daily life.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 32.--A Spindle Cell of Involuntary Muscle. (Highly magnified.)]

Experiment 18. _To show the general appearance of the muscles._ Obtain the lower part of a sheep's or calf's leg, with the most of the lean meat and the hoof left on. One or more of the muscles with their bundles of fibers, fascia, and tendons; are readily made out with a little careful dissection. The dissection should be made a few days before it is wanted and the parts allowed to harden somewhat in dilute alcohol.

68. Properties of Muscular Tissue. The peculiar property of living muscular tissue is irritability, or the capacity of responding to a stimulus. When a muscle is irritated it responds by contracting. By this act the muscle does not diminish its bulk to any extent; it simply changes its form. The ends of the muscle are drawn nearer each other and the middle is thicker.

Muscles do not shorten themselves all at once, but the contraction pa.s.ses quickly over them in the form of a wave. They are usually stimulated by nervous action. The delicate nerve fibrils which end in the fibers communicate with the brain, the center of the will power. Hence, when the brain commands, a nervous impulse, sent along the nerve fibers, becomes the exciting stimulus which acts upon the muscles and makes them shorter, harder, and more rigid.[10]

Muscles, however, will respond to other than this usual stimulus. Thus an electrical current may have a similar effect. Heat, also, may produce muscular contraction. Mechanical means, such as a sharp blow or pinching, may irritate a muscle and cause it to contract.

We must remember that this property of contraction is inherent and belongs to the muscle itself. This power of contraction is often independent of the brain. Thus, on p.r.i.c.king the heart of a fish an hour after removal from its body, obvious contraction will occur. In this case it is not the nerve force from the brain that supplies the energy for contraction. The power of contraction is inherent in the muscle substance, and the stimulus by irritating the nerve ganglia of the heart simply affords the opportunity for its exercise.

Contraction is not, however, the natural state of a muscle. In time it is tired, and begins to relax. Even the heart, the hardest-working muscle, has short periods of rest between its beats. Muscles are highly elastic as well as contractile. By this property muscle yields to a stretching force, and returns to its original length if the stretching has not been excessive.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 33.--Princ.i.p.al Muscles of the Body. (Anterior view.)]

69. The Object of Contraction. The object of contraction is obvious.

Like rubber bands, if one end of a muscle be fixed and the other attached to some object which is free to move, the contraction of the muscle will bring the movable body nearer to the fixed point. A weight fastened to the free end of a muscle may be lifted when the muscle contracts. Thus by their contraction muscles are able to do their work. They even contract more vigorously when resistance is opposed to them than when it is not. With increased weight there is an increased amount of work to be done. The greater resistance calls forth a greater action of the muscle.

This is true up to a certain point, but when the limit has been pa.s.sed, the muscle quickly fails to respond.

Again, muscles work best with a certain degree of rapidity provided the irritations do not follow each other too rapidly. If, however, the contractions are too rapid, the muscles become exhausted and fatigue results. When the feeling of fatigue pa.s.ses away with rest, the muscle recovers its power. While we are resting, the blood is pouring in fresh supplies of building material.

Experiment 19. _To show how muscles relax and contract_. Lay your left forearm on a table; grasp with the right hand the ma.s.s of flesh on the front of the upper arm. Now gradually raise the forearm, keeping the elbow on the table. Note that the muscle thickens as the hand rises.

This ill.u.s.trates the contraction of the biceps, and is popularly called "trying your muscle" Reverse the act. Keep the elbow in position, bring the forearm slowly to the table, and the biceps appears to become softer and smaller,--it relaxes.

Experiment 20. Repeat the same experiment with other muscles. With the right hand grasp firmly the extended left forearm. Extend and flex the fingers vigorously. Note the effect on the muscles and tendons of the forearm. Grasp with the right hand the calf of the extended right leg, and vigorously flex the leg, bringing it near to the body. Note the contractions and relaxations of the muscles.

70. Arrangement of Muscles. Muscles are not connected directly with bones. The ma.s.s of flesh tapers off towards the ends, where the fibers pa.s.s into white, glistening cords known as tendons. The place at which a muscle is attached to a bone, generally by means of a tendon, is called its origin; the end connected with the movable bone is its insertion.

There are about 400 muscles in the human body, all necessary for its various movements. They vary greatly in shape and size, according to their position and use. Some are from one to two feet long, others only a fraction of an inch. Some are long and spindle-shaped, others thin and broad, while still others form rings. Thus some of the muscles of the arm and thigh are long and tapering, while the abdominal muscles are thin and broad because they help form walls for cavities. Again, the muscular fibers which surround and by their contraction close certain orifices, as those of the eyelids and lips, often radiate like the spokes of a wheel.

Muscles are named according to their shape, position, division of origin or insertion, and their function. Thus we have the _recti_ (straight), and the _deltoid_ (?, delta), the _brachial_ (arm), _pectoral_ (breast), and the _intercostals_ (between the ribs), so named from their position. Again, we have the _biceps_ (two-headed), _triceps_ (three-headed), and many others with similar names, so called from the points of origin and insertion. We find other groups named after their special use. The muscles which bend the limbs are called _flexors_ while those which straighten them are known as _extensors_.

After a bone has been moved by the contraction of a muscle, it is brought back to its position by the contraction of another muscle on the opposite side, the former muscle meanwhile being relaxed. Muscles thus acting in opposition to each other are called antagonistic. Thus the biceps serves as one of the antagonists to the triceps, and the various flexors and extensors of the limbs are antagonistic to one another.

71. The Tendons. The muscles which move the bones by their contraction taper for the most part, as before mentioned, into tendons. These are commonly very strong cords, like belts or straps, made up of white, fibrous tissue.

Tendons are most numerous about the larger joints, where they permit free action and yet occupy but little s.p.a.ce. Large and prominent muscles in these places would be clumsy and inconvenient. If we bend the arm or leg forcibly, and grasp the inside of the elbow or knee joint, we can feel the tendons beneath the skin. The numerous tendons in the palm or on the back of the hand contribute to its marvelous dexterity and flexibility. The thickest and strongest tendon in the body is the tendon of Achilles, which connects the great muscles in the calf of the leg with the heel bone (sec. 49).

When muscles contract forcibly, they pull upon the tendons which transmit the movement to the bones to which they are attached. Tendons may be compared to ropes or cords which, when pulled, are made to act upon distant objects to which one end is fastened. Sometimes the tendon runs down the middle of a muscle, and the fibers run obliquely into it, the tendon resembling the quill in a feather. Again, tendons are spread out in a flat layer on the surface of muscles, in which case they are called aponeuroses. Sometimes a tendon is found in the middle of a muscle as well as at each end of it.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 34.--The Biceps Muscle dissected to show its Tendons.]

72. Synovial Sheaths and Sacs. The rapid movement of the tendons over bony surfaces and prominences would soon produce an undue amount of heat and friction unless some means existed to make the motion as easy as possible. This is supplied by sheaths which form a double lining around the tendons. The opposed surfaces are lined with synovial membrane,[11] the secretion from which oils the sheaths in which the tendons move.

Little closed sacs, called synovial sacs or bursae, similarly lined and containing fluid, are also found in special places between two surfaces where much motion is required. There are two of these bursae near the patella, one superficial, just under the skin; the other deep beneath the bone (Fig. 29). Without these, the constant motion of the knee-pan and its tendons in walking would produce undue friction and heat and consequent inflammation. Similar, though smaller, sacs are found over the point of the elbow, over the knuckles, the ankle bones, and various other prominent points. These sacs answer a very important purpose, and are liable to various forms of inflammation.

Experiment 21. Examine carefully the tendons in the parts dissected in Experiment 18. Pull on the muscles and the tendons, and note how they act to move the parts. This may be also admirably shown on the leg of a fowl or turkey from a kitchen or obtained at the market.

Obtain the hoof of a calf or sheep with one end of the tendon of Achilles still attached. Dissect it and test its strength.

73. Mechanism of Movement. The active agents of bodily movements, as we have seen, are the muscles, which by their contraction cause the bones to move one on the other. All these movements, both of motion and of locomotion, occur according to certain fixed laws of mechanics. The bones, to which a great proportion of the muscles in the body are attached, act as distinct levers. The muscles supply the power for moving the bones, and the joints act as fulcrums or points of support. The weight of the limb, the weight to be lifted, or the force to overcome, is the resistance.

74. Levers in the Body. In mechanics three cla.s.ses of levers are described, according to the relative position of the power, the fulcrum, and the resistance. All the movements of the bones can be referred to one or another of these three cla.s.ses.

Levers of the first cla.s.s are those in which the fulcrum is between the power and the weight. The crowbar, when used to lift a weight at one end by the application of power at the other, with a block as a fulcrum, is a familiar example of this cla.s.s. There are several examples of this in the human body. The head supported on the atlas is one. The joint between the atlas and the skull is the fulcrum, the weight of the head is the resistance. The power is behind, where the muscles from the neck are attached to the back of the skull. The object of this arrangement is to keep the head steady and balanced on the spinal column, and to move it backward and forward.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 35.--Showing how the Bones of the Arm serve as Levers.

P, power; W, weight; F, fulcrum.

Levers of the second cla.s.s are those in which the weight is between the fulcrum and the power. A familiar example is the crowbar when used for lifting a weight while one end rests on the ground. This cla.s.s of levers is not common in the body. Standing on tiptoe is, however, an example.

Here the toes in contact with the ground are the fulcrum, the power is the action of the muscles of the calf, and between these is the weight of the body transmitted down the bones of the leg to the foot.

Levers of the third cla.s.s are those in which the power is applied at a point between the fulcrum and weight. A familiar example is where a workman raises a ladder against a wall. This cla.s.s of levers is common in the body. In bending the forearm on the arm, familiarly known as "trying your muscle," the power is supplied by the biceps muscle attached to the radius, the fulcrum is the elbow joint at one end of the lever, and the resistance is the weight of the forearm at the other end.

Experiment 22. _To ill.u.s.trate how the muscles use the bones as levers._ First, practice with a ruler, blackboard pointer, or any other convenient object, ill.u.s.trating the different kinds of levers until the principles are familiar. Next, ill.u.s.trate these principles on the person, by making use of convenient muscles. Thus, lift a book on the toes, by the fingers, on the back of the hand, by the mouth, and in other ways.

These experiments, showing how the bones serve as levers, may be multiplied and varied as circ.u.mstances may require.

75. The Erect Position. The erect position is peculiar to man. No other animal naturally a.s.sumes it or is able to keep it long. It is the result of a somewhat complex arrangement of muscles which balance each other, some pulling backwards and some forwards. Although the whole skeleton is formed with reference to the erect position, yet this att.i.tude is slowly learned in infancy.

In the erect position the center of gravity lies in the joint between the sacrum and the last lumbar vertebra. A line dropped from this point would fall between the feet, just in front of the ankle joints. We rarely stand with the feet close together, because that basis of support is too small for a firm position. Hence, in all efforts requiring vigorous muscular movements the feet are kept more or less apart to enlarge the basis of support.

Now, on account of the large number and flexibility of the joints, the body could not be kept in an upright position without the cooperation of certain groups of muscles. The muscles of the calf of the leg, acting on the thigh bone, above the knee, keep the body from falling forward, while another set in front of the thigh helps hold the leg straight. These thigh muscles also tend to pull the trunk forward, but in turn are balanced by the powerful muscles of the lower back, which help keep the body straight and braced.

The head is kept balanced on the neck partly by the central position of the joint between the atlas and axis, and partly by means of strong muscles. Thus, the combined action of these and other muscles serves to balance the body and keep it erect. A blow on the head, or a sudden shock to the nervous system, causes the body to fall in a heap, because the brain has for the time lost its power over the muscles, and they cease to contract.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 36.--Diagram showing the Action of the Chief Muscles which keep the Body Erect. (The arrows indicate the direction in which these muscles act, the feet serving as a fixed basis.) [After Huxley.]

_Muscles which tend to keep the body from falling forward._

A, muscles of the calf; B, of the back of the thigh; C, of the spinal column.