The SET OLR 
tended with blood by this operation, that 
entirely loft the power of contracting them 
again, fo as to be able to difcharge the air at 
my mouth, in a manner requifite for the bu- 
finefs I was about. 
It is very wonderful, how infects in winter, 
when all. their blood and humours are con- 
gealed, as it were, in their veflels, lofe likewife 
all power over their mufcles ; fo that if their 
legs and other limbs be extended without do- 
ing them violence, they will remain in that 
pofture till the creature recovers the power of 
‘moving them, on the return of warm weather, 
or by being placed near a fire; for a very {mall 
degree of warmth communicated to them in_the 
beft manner, is fufficient to reftore them to life 
and motion, to enable them to turn about, 
run, and even fly, till their blood and humours 
congeal again, which they do in a very {hort 
time ; and the little animal is thereby reduced 
to its former ftate of inaction. I have like- 
wife obferved that famous vegetable called the 
Senfitive plant, is much lefs fenfible in autumn, 
than in the {ummer feafon. 
It may be afked how is the effect of the na- 
tural determinate irritation of the nerves, or 
even of that which is produced from without, 
and by art produced; fince it is not poffible to 
prove, or reafonable to fuppofe, that any fen- 
fible matter is at that time conveyed, or locally 
carried into the mufcle ; but, on the contrary, 
it muft be allowed, that the mufcle difcharges 
the matter it contained, fo as to fill a lefs com- 
pals ? 
I muft confefs it a very difficult tafk to an- 
fwer this queftion, and perhaps impoffible, till 
‘the true contraction of the mufcles fhall be 
exactly known. For this reafon I fhall enter 
upon a method for attaining fome certainty in 
this matter, like that purfued in acquiring juft 
notions concerning the ufe of the eye; for the 
manner in which vifion is performed, was dif- 
covered without any true knowledge of the 
{tructure of that curious organ, by which we 
enjoy that great bleffing. Hence, were I per- 
mitted to make ufe of a coarfe fimilitude, I 
might conceive it effected in the fame manner 
with the alterations vifible on handling, or 
touching ever fo gently the parts of the Herba 
Impatiens, called Touch me not, or podded 
Ars Smart, orthe Balfamita alteria of Fabius Co- 
lumna ; the parts of which plant being extend- 
ed according to the courfe of two or three ner- 
vous or herbaceous fibres, in confequence of 
any momentarty irritation, moft fuddenly con- 
tract, and the pods burft.* And certainly, 
if thefe fibres, which cannot fo expeditioufly 
contract themfelves, before the feed of the 
plant to which they belong has arrived at its 
due maturity, did not curl up and fall off, but 
of, PN) SeBIG WIS. 129 
inftead of thus perifhing, could bé again di- 
lated like leather, when forcibly bent, and ex- 
cited by a new irritation to a new contraction; 
we fhould have in them a moft curious €xam- 
ple of the action of the mufcles, the princi- 
pal of which confifts in a contraction following 
a dilatation ; fo that itis the contraction of the 
mufcles, and not the dilatation of them, that 
we ought to confider as their principal office, 
fince: even when the animal is dead; they will 
{till endeavour to contract themfelves. J} have 
even feen a mufcle contract itfelf, when boiled 
in the fame balfam in which I had preferved 
it for feveral years. 
Let people think what they pleafe of the 
above-mentioned fimilitude, or comparifon ; 
at leaft the experiment informing us that the 
mufcle contracts itfelf as foon ag its nerve, is 
put in motion, refts upon a moft fclid founda= 
tion : but as I demonftrated at the fame time, 
that a mufcle takes up lefs room in its con 
tracted, than in its dilated, ftate, it moft evi- 
dently follows, that there does not flow into 
it at that time, as has been fuppofed, any ex- 
_panding or rarefying matter, but that that fub- 
{tance muft be inconceivably fine and delicate, 
which at that moment of time can produce in 
the mufcle fo wonderful a motion ; though we 
are not certain that this effect differs in any 
thing from that which the wind, a finger, a 
ftick, or a briftle, has in contraéting the little 
fibres in the contractile pod of the Touch me 
not plant. 
I therefore think, that, as I faid before, it 
may be from hence fairly inferred, that when- 
ever the nerve is immediately irritated, the 
mufcle, to which it belongs, muft be in a ftate 
of perpetual contraction, or at leaft in a fate 
of perpetual effort, and endeavour to contrac- 
tion. This is a circumftance, which I former- 
ly obferved in my treatife of Refpiration, and 
fhall hereafter more clearly explain, as I in- 
tend to publifh a new method, in which we 
may in fome meafure confider the conftant mo- 
tions of the mufcles. 
But before I undertake this tafk, and there- 
by make an end of the prefent treatife, I muft 
confider in what ftate or condition the mutfcles 
wete before they exercifed any motion. This 
may be very eafily feen in infects, and even in 
the rudiments of the mufcles belonging to 
larger animals, whofe mutcles at that time are 
generally compact, white, membranaceous, and 
{eem compofed at their very firft appearance of 
a kind of glutinous humour. In infects, it is 
very remarkable, that at the time of their 
changes, their mufeles become in a menner in- 
vifible, and afterwards increafe in fize to a pro- 
digious degree; nay, even their limbs difap~ 
pear, and grow in the fame manner, but more 
* To the plants here mentioned by Swammerdan, may be added feveral others, in the feed-veflels of which there is this elaftick 
power, which he fuppofes in fome degree analagous to the mufcular motion in animals : in the multitude of examples, the truth will 
be beit difcovered. 
The Wood-forrel, wild Cucumber, and Lady-fmock, among the common kinds; and in the Momerdica, 
Phylanthus, Euphor- 
bie, Jutticie, Ruellie, Didtamnus, Ricinus, Tragica, Jatroplia, Cretan, Clulia, and Realypha, among the more rare; and moft of all 
in the Hura, or Sand Box-tree, which burfts with the report of a piftol, and featters its feparated parts throughout, © 
‘Thefe are the fubjeéts in which the origin and caufes of this motion in vegetable parts may be traced, and the 
K k 
a full difquifition. 
fubje&t is worthy 
particularly 
