BOWMAN, WILLIAM. - CLASSIC WORK ON THE STRIATED MUSCLE FIBRES.

On the Minute Structure and Movements of Voluntary Muscle...In a Letter addressed to Robert Bently Todd. Received June 18, - Read June 18, 1840. (+) Additional Note on the Contraction of Voluntary Muscle in the Living Body. received April 15, - Read April 29, 1841.

(London, Richard and John E., Taylor, 1840 a. 1841). 4to. No wrappers as extracted from "Philosophical Transactions" 1840 - Part II. Pp. 457-501 a. 4 lithographed plates + 1841 - Part I., pp. 69-72. Both papers clean and fine.

First appearance of this classic paper on the physiology of the muscles. - "Classical description of the striated muscle" (Garrison & Morton No. 542).
Striated muscle fine structure began to be really understood following a comprehensive survey of the matter carried out by William Bowman in the late 1830s. The publications resulting from such a study, the first of which earned for the author a precocious election as Fellow of the Royal Society.

"Bowman succeeded in establishing the true architecture of striated muscle fibres to the extent possible with the most advanced technology available in his day - explaining and eradicating alternative erroneous concepts in the process - but also in correctly describing the basic microstructural changes associated with contraction. In addition, although unrecognized by him or others at the time, his experiments with muscle provided direct evidence for the existence of a selectively permeable cell membrane - in the present meaning of the word - over half a century before its officially accepted discovery. Yet, in spite of these remarkable advances, Bowman arrived at the conclusion that the structure of striated muscle fibres is essentially irrelevant for the mechanism of contraction."(Eugenio Frixione).

Order-nr.: 42942