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Untitled Article
action , while the muscles of the arm and the muscles of the leg become tired after an hour ' s vigorous exertion , are completely exhausted after a day ' s labour , and can by no effort be made to work beyond a riven period ? There is no apparent difference in the muscle itself . In both cases the substance is similar , and the organization , as far as we are able to appreciate it , is the same ; yet , what an amazing difference in their action ! Physiologists have laboured with great earnestness to assign the cause of this , but we are able to go back only a single step , and then recurs the same difficulty . '—* Muscles
contract on the application of stimuli . The voluntary muscles contract on the application of the stimulus of volition . Volition acts only occasionally . The stimulus is not always present , and the muscle acts only when the stimulus is present . But the proper stimulus of the heart is the blood . The heart always contracts whenever a certain portion of blood is brought into contact with the
inner surface of its different chambers . That portion of blood is duly brought to it in a regular manner , and in successive order . It , therefore , never ceases to act , because it is never without the presence of its appropriate stimulus . It maintains through life a nearly uniform succession of movements , because its appropriate stimulus in due quantity is regularly supplied to it at successive intervals .
' We can thus see how its- action is without intermission ; but why it should never feel exhaustion or fatigue , why , unlike the voluntary muscle , it requires neither rest nor repose , we do not know . Had it required rest or repose , the first hour in which it indulged in either would have been the last of life . What the necessities of the economy are that render it desirable that it should be placed beyond the
dominion of the will , we see . Did the beating of our heart depend on our own care and thought , we could give care and thought to but little else . It was necessary to the continuance of our life that it should be made capable of working unceasingly , without a moment ' s pause , and without the capacity of fatigue . It is so made ; and the power of the Creator , in constructing it , can in nothing be exceeded l ) ut his wisdom !'
With this extract we close our present account of the lectures , hoping at a future time to give , as completely as an un illustrated abridgement can give , some idea of those that yet remain to be noticed . The interest of the subject , heightened as it is by the comprehensive view in which it is grasped by the lecturer , cannot fail to insure , to hie
benevolent intention to improve the moral and physical condition of his fellow-beings , the best success . That success is to be found in the feelings with which many will rise from the study of this branch of the human economy ; admiration at the wonderful and beautiful contrivance displayed in the structure of our bodies , and gratitude to the almighty and beneficent Creator , who has made all things to minister to the ultimate happiness of his creatures *
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Dr . Southwood Smith on the Animal Economy . 131
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1833, page 131, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2608/page/63/
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