196 Mr H. F. Baxter on Muscular Power. 
tion augmente dans certaines limites avec le poids attaché 
au muscle, et qui est ainsi soulevé ce qui nécessairement 
fatigue et détruit beaucoup plus rapidement la force du 
muscle.” | 
Professor Haughton of Dublin has recently investigated 
the question in the human subject, and has arrived at the 
conclusion, ‘‘ that 1 lb. weight of a muscle is capable of 
lifting 1:56 ton through one foot before it became ex- 
hausted.”* 
Astounding as these results may appear, it is not for 
physiologists to ignore them. The circumstance that a 
great difference exists between one human individual and 
another in regard to their muscular powers, makes it diffi- 
cult to suppose that the same results would be obtained in 
every case. Professor Haughton himself has shown that 
age has great influence respecting the time in which a 
muscle becomes exhausted. The question however occurs, 
are we enabled to ascertain the muscular power of an ani- 
mal by its total weight, or are we obliged to ascertain by 
experiment the power of each individual separately. 
In the following experiments, instead of employing the 
gastrocnemius muscle of the frog separated from the animal, 
as was done by Matteucci and Helmholtz, I adopted the 
plan pursued by Schwann in his investigations on muscular 
contraction, viz., the limb remained connected with the ani- 
mal, so that the vital conditions of the muscle should be 
maintained during the experiment; wishing also to have 
the animal as perfect as possible, in my first experiments 
the sciatic nerve was merely exposed, but not divided, and 
the muscle made to contract by stimulating it; but from 
the frequent and general struggles of the animal, together 
with the contraction excited in other muscles by reflex 
action, this mode was soon abandoned, and the sciatic nerve 
divided. With the sciatic nerve divided, struggles on the 
part of the animal will occasionally occur; and although 
the gastrocnemius muscle itself is not contracted, still the 
animal can elevate the limb, and raise the weight, but this 
effect can be readily discriminated from that due to the 
* Outlines of a New Theory of Muscular Action. Dublin, 1863. 
