REST AND ACTIVITY. 565 



not present as nucleons is diminished ard the quantity of phosphates 

 is increased. This stands in accord with WEYL and ZEITLER'S l observa- 

 tions that the active muscle contains more phosphoric acid than the 

 inactive muscle. As in the dead muscle, so in the active muscle, the 

 somewhat stronger acid reaction is in part due to a greater quantity of 

 monophosphate. 



The amount of proteins in the removed muscles is, according to the 

 earlier investigators, decreased by work. The correctness of this state- 

 ment is, however, disputed by other investigators. Earlier reports in 

 regard to the nitrogenous extractive bodies of the muscle in rest and 

 in activity are likewise uncertain. According to the recent researches 

 of M.ONARI 2 the total quanticy of creatine and creatinine is increased by 

 work, and indeed the amount of creatinine is especially augmented 

 by an excess of muscular activity. The creatinine is formed essentially 

 from the creatine. In excessive activity MONARI also found xantho- 

 creatmine in the muscle, and the quantity was one-tenth that of the 

 creatinine. The recent investigations of GRAHAM BROWN and CATH- 

 CART on removed nerve-muscle preparations of frogs and those of S. 

 WEBER 3 on hearts, indicate an increase in the formation of creatine 

 and creatinine during w r ork. WEBER found that the working heart 

 gave up creatine (and creatinine) to RINGER'S solution, and indeed 

 much more when strongly active than during a lesser activity. The 

 purine bases are, according to BiiRiAN, 4 increased during work, due to 

 a greater formation (see above, page 546). It seems to have been posi- 

 tively shown that the active muscle contains a smaller quantity of bodies 

 soluble in water and a larger quantity of bodies soluble in alcohol than the 

 resting muscle. (HELMHOLTZ 5 ). 



Attempts have been made to solve the question relative to the 

 behavior of the nitrogenized constituents of the muscle at rest and during 

 activity by determining the total quantity of nitrogen eliminated under 

 these different conditions of the body. While formerly it was held with 

 LIEBIG that the elimination of nitrogen by the urine was increased by 

 muscular work, the researches of several experimenters, especially those 

 of VOIT on dogs and PETTENKOFER and VOIT on men, have led to quite 

 different results. They have shown, as has also lately been confirmed 



1 Siegfried, Zeitschr. f. physiol. Chem., 21; Macleod, ibid., 28; Weyl and Zeitler, 

 ibid., 6. 



2 Maly's Jahresber., 19, 296. 



3 Cathcart and Graham Brown, Journ. of Physiol., 37; Weber, Arch. f. exp. Path, 

 u. Pharm., 58. 



1 Zeitschr. f . physiol. Chem., 43. 

 5 Arch. f. (Anat. u.) Physiol., 1845. 



