The dynamics of living matter dynamicsofliving1906loeb2 Year: 1906 84 DYNAMICS OF LIVING MATTER especially the sodium salts of these acids.* The experiment is as /VYt follows: If the gastrocnemius of a frog is put into a — solution of o sodium citrate and left there for two or three minutes, it will go into powerful tetanic contractions or rather cramplike clonic contractions when taken out of the solution; while these contractions stop at once when the muscle is put back immediately. This can be repeated at desire, the muscle always going into contractions when exposed to the air, and relax
The dynamics of living matter dynamicsofliving1906loeb2 Year: 1906 84 DYNAMICS OF LIVING MATTER especially the sodium salts of these acids.* The experiment is as /VYt follows: If the gastrocnemius of a frog is put into a — solution of o sodium citrate and left there for two or three minutes, it will go into powerful tetanic contractions or rather cramplike clonic contractions when taken out of the solution; while these contractions stop at once when the muscle is put back immediately. This can be repeated at desire, the muscle always going into contractions when exposed to the air, and relaxing again when put back into the solution. Zoethout found that this reaction can be produced quicker and with greater certainty when a slight amount of a K-salt is added to the solution. I believe that the K antagonizes the tendency to rhythmical contractions which the muscle possesses in a sodium-citrate solution. It seems to be necessary that this tendency to rhythmical contractions be overcome in order to obtain the phenomenon which we are now discussing, and which I called in a pre- liminary way the contact re- action of muscle, inasmuch as it can be produced by changing the nature of the medium which surrounds the muscle. The apparatus used for the demon- stration of this experiment is shown in Fig. 15. When only part of the muscle is lifted out of the citrate solution, only those fibers go into tonic contraction which are in contact with the air; while those fibers which remain in the solution do not contract. The reaction, therefore, is a purely local one in each in- dividual muscle cell. This re- action not only occurs when the muscle is brought from the solution into contact with air, but also when it is brought into contact with C02, oil, toluol, sugar, or glycerine solutions. All these solutions are nonconductors, and * Loeb, Am. Jour. Phydology, Vol. 5, p. 362, 1901. Fig. 15.
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