Biophysics in Muscular Action

Abstract

THE attractive title of this book is fully justified by its contents. Anyone who wished to sing with the Greek poet the praises of the inventive wit of man, σoфóv Tl TÒ μηXαvóEV TÉXVαS V́πÈp Èλπíδ' ξxwv, could have no better example than some of the adventures in biophysics, of which Prof. Hill here gives an account. Technical skill and ingenuity in the use and construction of thermopiles made it possible to measure the rate at which a muscle liberates heat, when it is at complete rest, the basal metabolism of the living tissue. This basal rate was measured with the muscle in air or oxygen, and in nitrogen free from oxygen. It was about twice as great in oxygen as in nitrogen. The life of a tissue may be regarded as consisting in the balancing of destructive catabolic changes by reconstructive anabolic changes: heat may be supposed to be liberated by both kinds of change. In the absence of oxygen the anabolic changes would not appear.

Adventures in Biophysics.

By Prof. A. V. Hill. Pp. ix + 162. (London: Oxford University Press, 1931.) 12s. 6d. net.