Picture - Cosmic Polymath

PROTOPLASMIC, AMCEBIC, AND OTHER MOVEMENTS 319
the partly digested food (chyme) is being passed at intervals into the small intestine. The movements of the
stomach and its sphincters are co-ordinated, rhythmic wave movements.
The reader will get a good idea of the structure of the oesophagus, duodenum, and human stomach—especially
the sphincters of the latter—from careful drawings made by me from my original dissections, preserved in the
Royal College of Surgeons of England, London. {Vide Fig. 67, p. 326.)
Arrangements similar to those described in the stomach obtain in the bladder. This viscus is provided with
a powerful sphincter at its neck or depending portion. It completely occludes the urinary passage ; so much so,
that not a drop of urine can escape. When the period for micturition arrives the sphincter vesicae opens or relaxes
of its own accord ; the body of the bladder contracts simultaneously and rhythmically, and the urine is expelled.
These acts are consentaneous, but they are independent. The one does not cause the other. They are rhythmic
wave movements, and are means to ends, and, as such, imply pre-arrangement and design. Neither in the case of
the stomach nor the bladder could the practically impervious passages of the sphincters be forced. The same
is true of the rectum and uterus in defsecation and parturition. The sphincters ani open when the rectum closes
or contracts ; the cervix and os uteri open when the uterus contracts. The object of the double movement is to
expel the faeces and the foetus. The contents of the viscera play a merely nominal and passive part in the rhythmic
wave movements referred to. They do not cause them. The peculiarity of the hollow viscera (heart, stomach,
bladder, rectum, and uterus) is that they are containing and retaining as well as propeUing and discharging organs.
The double function necessitates the condition of partial rest when the organs are receiving and accommodating
their appropriate charges, and active alternating rhythmic movements as between the several parts of the organs
when their contents are being expelled. The contents are discharged in each case by the alternate opening and
closing rhythmic wave movements.
It should be explained that the involuntary muscles have no origins and insertions, as is the case in the voluntary
muscles. They are, however, capable of very powerful action, and display what must be regarded as fundamental
centrifugal and centripetal movements. The centripetal and centrifugal movements furnish the types for all muscular
action, whether involuntary or voluntary.
The manner in which the involuntary muscles (blood-vessels, heart, stomach, &o.), the voluntary muscles
(flexors, extensors, abductors, adductors, pronators, supinators, &c.), and the sarcous elements composing both act,
will be readUy understood by a reference to Plates Ixxxiii., Ixxxiv., and Ixxxv. which follow.
PLATE LXXXIII
Plate Ixxxiii. shows that voluntary muscular fibres and fibrillae may be divided longitudinally and transversely
the double cleavage gives rise to the markings
how and broken up into little squares or cubes (sarcous elements) ;
and striations so well seen under high powers of the microscope ; how the sarcous elements have the power of
changing shape centripetally and centrifugally in two directions, namely, transversely and longitudinally ; how
muscles and the parts thereof (sarcous elements) move spontaneously and harmoniously in waves ; how the several
parts of muscles move simultaneously, one part moving transversely when the other is moving longitudinally, and
vice versd ; how the several parts alternately change places, there being no such thing as antagonism in muscular
action either as regards the sarcous elements of individual muscles, or as regards the so-called flexor and extensor
muscles of the body as a whole.
The sarcous elements of the involuntary muscles are less differentiated than those of the voluntary ones. They,
however, act in essentially the same way. It is easy to understand how, according to my theory, parts are extended
and flexed, how bones and other structures are moved, and how hollow viscera, especially those with sphincters, are
opened and closed.
Fig. 1.—A. Elementary voluntary muscular fibres from the leg of a newly-born rabbit after having been exposed to the action
of alcohol. Shows well-marked longitudinal and transverse cleavage of the muscle, how the muscle breaks up into sarcous elements
or little squares and cubes, and how these may be detached as at a, a', a" (after Bowman).
B. Sarcous element or cube very greatly enlarged and invested with the double power of vitally changing shape in two
directions, namely, horizontally and vertically. The change in shape is effected by combined centripetal and centrifugal movements
as indicated by the solid darts {a, h, c, d), and the dotted darts (e,/, g, h). When the sarcous element assumes the shape C (in the
horizontal position), it contracts or shortens (see solid darts k, c) in a direction from above downwards, and relaxes or elongates
(see dotted darts /, h) laterally. When the sarcous element assumes the shape D, it contracts or shortens laterally (see solid
darts b, d), and relaxes or elongates vertically (see dotted darts e, g). The shape of the sarcous elements in the condition of rest
is seen at B ; the centrifugal movements are indicated at B, and the centripetal ones at F.
When two muscles, say a flexor and extensor, are at work, the sarcous elements of the one are shortening, as at 0, while the
sarcous elements of the other are elongating, as at 1) (compare with m, n of Fig. 4). The sarcous elements can change shape in
two directions (see C and D of Fig. 2). The sarcous elements of both muscles move synchronously and harmoniously to a given
end, whether that be the flexion or the extension of a part. The flexor and extensor muscles are not pitted against each other or