SCIENTIFIC PROCEEDINGS. 



Abstracts of the Communications, 

 Thirty ninth meeting. 



Sheffield Biological Laboratory, Yale University. May 18, iqio. 

 President Morgan in the chair. 



84 (494) 



An examination of Frohlich 's theory of the treppe. 

 By FREDERIC S. LEE and E. N. HARVEY. 



[From the Department of Physiology of Columbia University, at the 

 College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York.] 

 It is commonly believed that during the treppe a muscle pos- 

 sesses a progressively augmented power of performing work. Ac- 

 cording to Frohlich, the augmentation is not real but only ap- 

 parent. He believes that fatigue of the muscle elements begins 

 with the beginning of the series of contractions, and that, from 

 the first, it is manifested by a slowing of relaxation, a diminution 

 in the extent of contraction, and a diminution in irritability. 

 Successive elements of a stimulated muscle contract successively 

 and those first in contraction begin their relaxation before later 

 elements have reached the maximum of shortening. Since the 

 total amount of shortening of the whole muscle represents the 

 algebraic sum of the amounts of shortening of the several elements, 

 with the slowing of relaxation, the total amount of shortening is 

 increased. This more than counterbalances the diminution in the 

 extent of contraction. The treppe is thus a physical expression 

 of delayed vital processes and signifies a diminished, rather than 

 an increased working power. Frohlich has extended this theory 

 to the augmentation observed in the preliminary stages of the 

 action of cold, asphyxia, carbon dioxide, alcohol and other narcotics 

 on various tissues, in the central nervous system under various 

 conditions, in the current of action of nerves, and even in the pro- 

 duction of heat in fevers. His theory conflicts with the theory 

 advanced by the present senior author, according to which the 



135 



