THE EFFECT OF SUBCUTANEOUS INJECTIONS OF 



WATER, RINGER'S FLUID, AND TEN PER CENT 



SOLUTIONS OF ETHYL ALCOHOL UPON 



THE COURSE OF FATIGUE IN THE 



EXCISED MUSCLES OF THE 



FROG.* 



Theodore Hough and Clara Eleanor Ham 



(From the Biological Laboratories of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.) 



The research, the results of which are herewith reported, was sug- 

 gested by a paper by Lee and Salant' on the effect of alcohol upon the 

 fatigue of skeletal muscle. These investigators, after ligaturing one 

 leg of a frog near the hip joint, injected a lo per cent solution of ethyl 

 alcohol into the dorsal lymph sac or the stomach; the ligatured (nor- 

 mal) leg was at once removed below the ligature, and a fatigue tracing 

 taken from the gastrocnemius, using isotonic contractions and giving 

 about 60 stimuli a minute. After allowing from 20 to 75 minutes 

 for the absorption of the injected fluid, a similar tracing was taken 

 from the "alcoholized gastrocnemius of the other leg. Thus from 

 each animal records were obtained from a non- alcoholized and an 

 alcoholized muscle." 



The results of a large number of experiments made by this very 

 ingenious method are thus summarized by the authors: Tracings from 

 the alcoholized muscle showed "quicker contraction, quicker relaxa- 

 tion, larger number of contractions and increase of work in a given 

 time, larger number of contractions and greater total amount of work 

 before exhaustion sets in, and delay of fatigue;" and the conclusion 

 is drawn that "in medium quantity it (i.e., ethyl alcohol) e.xerts a 

 favorable action" upon skeletal muscle. 



We can fully corroborate Lee and Salant's statement that the 

 "alcoholized" muscle contracts and rela.\cs more quickly than the 



* Received for publication April 13, 1906. 

 « Lee and Salant, Amer. Jour, of Physiol., igoi, 8. pp. 61-74- 



