398 £. Frankland on the Source of Muscular Power. 
body to this height represents 64,000 meterkilograms of work; 
that is, the labor necessary to raise a kilogram weight to the 
height of 2 meter 64,000 times. ; 
In order to estimate the amount of actual energy generated 
by the oxydation of a given amount of muscle in the body, it is 
necessary to determine, first, the amount of actual energy gene- 
rated by the combustion of that amount of muscle in oxygen, 
and then to deduct from the number thus obtained the amount 
of energy still remaining in the products of the oxydation of 
this quantity of muscle which leave the body. Of these pro- 
quantity (2 liters) of water. The determinations were made 
with this instrument in the following manner:—19%5 grams of 
chlorate of potash, to which about one-eighth of peroxyd of 
manganese was added, was intimately mixed with a known 
weight (generally about 2 grams) of the substanee whose poten- 
tial energy was to be determined, and the mixture being then 
placed in the copper tube above mentioned, a small piece of cot- 
ton thread, previously steeped in chlorate of potash and dried, 
was inserted in the mixture. e temperature of the water 1n 
the calorimeter was now ascertained by a delicate thermometer ; 
and the end of the cotton thread being ignited, the tube with its 
contents was placed in the copper bell and lowered to the bottom 
of the water. As soon as the combustion reached the mixture 
a stream of gases issued from numerous small openings at the 
lower edge of the bel! and rose to the surface of the water—a 
height of about 10 inches. 
At the termination of the deflagration, the water was allowed 
ree access to the interior of the bel, by opening a stop 
connected with the bell by a small tube rising above the surface 
quickly established. The temperature of the water was again 
carefully observed, and the difference between this and the pre- 
vious observation determines the calorific power or potential en- 
ergy, expressed as heat, of the substance consumed. 
dy. 
