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CHAPTER X.
MUSCLES.
STRIATED MUSCLES.
In the study of the muscles the chief problem for physiological chem-
istry is to isolate their different morphological elements and to investigate
each element separately. By reason of the complicated structure of
the muscles this has been thus far almost impossible, and we must be
satisfied at the present time with a few microchemical reactions in the
investigation of the chemical composition of the muscular fibers.
Each muscle-tube or each muscle-fiber consists of a sheath, the
sarcolemma, which seems to be composed of a substance similar to
elastin, and containing a large proportion of protein. This last, which
in life possesses the power of contractility, has in the inactive muscle
an alkaline reaction, or, more correctly speaking, an amphoteric reac-
tion with a predominating action on red litmus paper. Rohmann
found that the fresh, inactive muscle shows an alkaline reaction with
red lacmoid, and an acid reaction with brown turmeric. From the effect
of various acids and salts on these coloring-matters, he concludes that the
alkalinity of the fresh muscle with lacmoid is due to sodium bicarbonate,
diphosphate, and probably also to an alkaline combination of protein
bodies, and the acid reaction with turmeric, on the contrary, to chiefly
monophosphate. The dead muscle has an acid reaction, or, more cor-
rectly, the acidity with turmeric increases on the decease of the muscle,
and the alkalinity with lacmoid decreases. The difference depends on the
presence of a larger quantity of monophosphate in the dead muscle, and
according to Rohmann free lactic acid is found in neither the one case
nor the other. 1
If the somewhat disputed statements relative to the finer structure
of the muscles are disregarded, one can differentiate in the striated muscles
between the two chief components, the doubly refracting
—
anisotropous
—and the singly refracting
—
isotropous—substance. Both contain
abundance of protein, which form the chief part of the solids of the muscles.
1
The various reports in regard to the reaction of the muscles and the cause thereof
are conflicting. See Rohmann, Pfluger’s Arch., 50 and 55; Heffter, Arch. f. exp.
Path. u. Pharm., 31 and 38. These references contain the pertinent literature.
065
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