Open AccessMyothermic experiments on the frog's gastrocnemius
Author(s) -
A. V. Hill
Publication year - 1931
Publication title -
proceedings of the royal society of london. series b, containing papers of a biological character
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2053-9185
pISSN - 0950-1193
DOI - 10.1098/rspb.1931.0081
Subject(s) - gastrocnemius muscle , oxygen , anatomy , connective tissue , chemistry , stimulation , biophysics , biomedical engineering , biology , skeletal muscle , neuroscience , medicine , genetics , organic chemistry
The gastrocnemius-sciatic preparation of the frog has been one of the chief objects on which the properties of isolated muscle have been studied. Its many obvious advantages, however, do not make it suitable for all purposes ; for some it has certain important disadvantages (а) Its size and thickness (in any but the smallest animals) render the supply of oxygen for recovery after stimulation, or even for resting metabolism, difficult or impossible. The critical diameter of a resting muscle just fully supplied with oxygen (at 20° C. in oxygen) is only 5.7 mm., and many gastrocnemii are larger than this (see Hill, 1928,c , pp. 60, 62). In a thick muscle the diffusion of oxygen cannot replace its normal supply by the circulation ; (б) The complex arrangement of its fibres and its inextensibility due to connective tissue make it unsatisfactory for studying the mechanical properties of muscle ; and (c) Its shape makes the measurement of its heat production by the usual myothermic methods inaccurate.