204 CONTIINUTY. 



chemical change would probably now be a generally accepted 

 doctrine ; but while many have thought that muscular power 

 is derived from the oxidation of albuminous or nitrogenised 

 substances, several recent researches seem to show that the 

 latter is rather an accompaniment than a cause of the former, 

 and that it is by the oxidation of carbon and hydrogen com- 

 pounds that muscular force is supplied. Traube has been pro- 

 minent in advancing this view, and experiments detailed in a 

 paper published this year by two Swiss professors, Drs. Fick 

 and Wislicenus, which were made by and upon themselves in 

 an ascent of the Faulhorn, have gone far to confirm it. Having 

 fed themselves, before and during the ascent, upon starch, fat, 

 and sugar, avoiding all nitrogenised compounds, they found 

 that the consumption of such food was amply sufficient to 

 supply the force necessary for their expedition, and that they 

 felt no exhaustion. By appropriate chemical examination 

 they ascertained that there was no notable increase in the 

 oxidation of the nitrogenised constituents of the body. After 

 calculating the mechanical equivalents of the combustion 

 effected, they state, as their first conclusion, that ' the burning 

 of protein substances cannot be the only source of muscular 

 power, for we have here two cases in which men performed 

 more measurable work than the equivalent of the amount of 

 heat which, taken at a most absurdly high figure, could be cal- 

 culated to result from the burning of the albumen.' 



They further go on to state that, so far from the oxidation 

 of albuminous substances being the only source of muscular 

 power, * the substances by the burning of which force is gene- 

 rated in the muscles, are not the albuminous constituents of 

 those tissues, but non-nitrogenous substances, either fats or 

 hydrates of carbon,' and that the burning of albumen is 

 not in any way concerned in the production of muscular 

 power. 



We must not confuse the question of the food which forms 

 and repairs muscle and gives permanent capability of muscular 

 force with that which supplies the requisites for temporary 

 activity ; no doubt the carnivora are the most powerfully con- 

 stituted animals, but the chamois, gazelle, &c., have great tem- 

 porary capacity for muscular exertion, though their food is 



