Myothermic apparatus

The investigation to be described in subsequent papers represent an attempt to clear up, with the greatest accuracy possible, a number of outstanding or controversial points in connection with the energy exchanges of muscle. During the course of them a new and striking phenomenon has been encountered, in respect of the resting heat-production of muscles kept under strictly anaerobic conditions. It has been necessary, moreover, for various purposes, to follow the heat-production of stimulated or recovering muscles for long periods, sometimes for an hour or more. The apparatus available proved inadequate for these new purposes, and had to be designed and constructed afresh. The present paper is a description of the methods finally adopted; the results obtained are given separately. In almost every respect the apparatus now employed will yield more reliable results, and is simpler to use, than any previously described, at any rate by the present author. The essential condition which it fulfils is that it will read, with relative accuracy, not only the heat suddenly produced by a single stimulus, but that liberated over long intervals at rest, or in recovery, or by prolonged discontinuous stimulation.