BioelectricaAlterspan Labs
AH
born 1886

Archibald Hill

A. V. Hill measured the heat given off by muscle and used it to follow the energy of contraction. His work covered heat during contraction, maintenance and relaxation, and the heat balance of the lactic acid cycle123. Later authors cited his muscle heat results, his estimate of nerve heat, and his equation for oxygen and haemoglobin4568.

Born
1886
In the library
1 work, named in 12 passages elsewhere
Facts from
Open Library
18501875190019251950197520002025Hill, A. V., 19261Hill, A. V., 19262Hill, A. V., 19263Bayliss, W. M., 19154Lillie, R. S., 19235Crile, G. W., 19266Lillie, R. S., 19237Bayliss, W. M., 19158
01

Heat of muscle

In Muscular Activity, Hill describes heat production through the whole course of a contraction. Heat appears in an initial outburst, continues at a steady rate while the contraction is held, and appears again in a large, sudden amount at relaxation1. With Hartree, Hill hung a load on an isolated frog muscle and watched the temperature.

02

Lactic acid and energy balance

Hill added up the heat of the anaerobic cycle in muscle. Forming lactic acid from glycogen and neutralising it gave 370 calories per gram of hydrated glycogen broken down. This matched the amount found in muscle. Hill concluded that any other reaction of importance would have to produce no heat, so none was likely3.

03

Use by later authors

Bayliss cited Hill's finding that heat per unit of tension did not depend on stimulus frequency once twitches fused4. Lillie used Hill's observation that much heat follows the contraction itself5, and credited Hill with improving Nernst's theory of electrical stimulation7. Crile quoted Hill's figure that the electric change in nerve is about one hundred thousandth of the energy of a twitch6. Bayliss also noted that Hill gave no physical meaning to the constants in the haemoglobin equation, while Barcroft did8.

SourcesEach quotation was checked word for word against the passage it opens.
  1. there is a continued production of heat, reaching a constant rate as the contraction is prolonged, and a comparatively large and sudden evolution of heat during relaxation (fig. 9).Hill, A. V., 1926 · Muscular Activity · open at passage 68
  2. the temperature fell rapidly (the reversible thermodynamic effect) and then rose (the irreversible loss of potential energy under viscous forces).Hill, A. V., 1926 · Muscular Activity · open at passage 12
  3. The total, therefore, in the formation of sodium lactate, is 370 calories per gram of hydrated glycogen broken down.Hill, A. V., 1926 · Muscular Activity · open at passage 102
  4. the amount of heat produced per unit of tension developed, is independent of the frequency of the stimuli, provided that the latter are sufficiently rapid to cause complete fusion of twitches.Bayliss, W. M., 1915 · Principles of General Physiology · open at passage 2329
  5. in the voluntary muscle cell a large part of the heatproduction following a single stimulus succeeds the contraction^ (Hill)Lillie, R. S., 1923 · Protoplasmic Action and Nervous Action · open at passage 90
  6. Hill has shown further that in a muscle the heating effect produced by the electric change accompanying a nervous impulse is not more than one hundred thousandth part of the energy liberated in a twitch.Crile, G. W., 1926 · A Bipolar Theory of Living Processes · open at passage 171
  7. An important advance in the theory of the local change has been made by Hill,^ who has modified Nernst's simple theory and brought it into closer conformity both with the facts of organic structureLillie, R. S., 1923 · Protoplasmic Action and Nervous Action · open at passage 498
  8. Hill himself (p. vi) did not profess to attach any direct physical meaning to the constants, although Barcroft (1913, p. 481) regards K as the equilibrium constantBayliss, W. M., 1915 · Principles of General Physiology · open at passage 2679
In the library1 work
Muscular ActivityHill, A. V.
1926
Muscular Activity
Hill, A. V.
1926 · read
Quoted inArticles that quote this person's work