Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/77

MUSCLE MUSES 69 movements of the wings are so rapid that they cannot be counted by the eye ; the muscular force of the hawk can propel it 150 miles an hour, and the albatross can fly across the ocean without fatigue. Dragons, flying fish, pha- langers, and squirrels (pteromys), though well organized in some respects for aerial progres- sion, cannot fly for want of sufficient muscular power ; but the extinct pterodactyl shows evi- dence of having possessed, like the existing bats, extensive powers of flight. The amount of muscular force necessary for flight is so great, that if man could concentrate all the strength employed in a day's labor, he could not support himself in the air for more than five minutes ; the accomplishment of flight in man, even with the assistance of any contrivance thus far sug- gested, may be safely considered an impossi- bility. The energy of the muscular system of fishes, considering the rapidity with which they move in their dense medium, must be very great. Other familiar examples of muscular power are seen in the constrictions of the boas ; the leap of the frog, kangaroo, jerboa, and hare; the speed of the antelope; the spring of the lion ; and the strength of the ox and elephant. The muscular power of man is more advantageously displayed by the extent and variety of motion than by actual force; but by scientific training great strength may be obtained from naturally feeble persons. The rapidity of muscular action is familiarly seen in the ventricular contractions of a child's heart, each of which occupies a little more than half a second ; in the movements of the vocal cords in rapid singing or speech; and most remarkably in the flight of insects, whose wings strike the air sometimes thousands of times in a minute, by a muscular mechanism and arrangement of elements mentioned under GNAT. Muscle may be hypertrophied from excess of nutrition arising from abundance of formative material, from increased supply of blood, but principally from preternatural formative capacity; the opposite conditions lead to atrophy of muscle. A remarkable change in muscle consists in its fatty degene- ration, to which the fibres of the heart are very subject ; the muscles of the limbs after paraly- sis are occasionally thus affected. Throughout the animal kingdom the development of the muscular system is in conformity with that of the nervous system. The vertebral system of muscles is most developed in fishes, the costal in serpents, the hyoid in fishes, the mastica- tory in vertebrates, the tegumentary in those mammals armed with spines (like the hedge- hog and porcupine), and in the unpaired or vertical fins of fishes ; those of the voice are most developed in birds, mammals, and man ; those of the limbs inversely as those of the spine, and feeblest in fishes; the diaphragm exists in mammals only. The muscles of the hand reach their highest perfection in man, while those of the tongue, eyes, ears, and nose show that many groups of muscles which are complete in the lower mammals, exist in man in a comparatively rudimentary condition. Muscles which move a limb in opposite direc- tions are called antagonist muscles. The flexor muscles of the arm, for instance, bend the limb at the elbow joint, and the extensor muscles draw it back, or extend the arm in a direct line ; thus these muscles antagonize each other. There is a sort of passive action in the differ- ent muscles of the body, constituting what is termed the natural tone of the system; and when this is los't or partially enfeebled in one set of muscles, their natural antagonists have an undue action on the parts, and cause dis- figurement by destruction of the natural bal- ance. The form and position of the muscles of the face, for instance, keep up a balance of feature in the natural expression of immobility or stillness ; those of one side antagonize those of the other. In paralysis of one side of the face, the muscles of that side are deprived of their natural tone and power of action, while those of the other side retain their tone and power as before ; the consequence of which is, that the latter draw the mouth to their side of the face, while the others are unable to coun- terbalance this action from want of power to act in the opposite direction. Certain mus- cles are antagonized by the natural elasticity of the parts to which they are attached ; the elasticity of the ribs and that of the elastic ligaments of the spinal column may be consid- ered as antagonistic to the natural tone and power of the muscles attached to them, or act- ing in a contrary direction . MUSCLE SHOALS. See TENNESSEE EIVEE. MISCOGEE, a W. county of Georgia, sepa- rated from Alabama by the Chattahoochee river, and bounded E. and S. E. by Upatoi creek ; area, about 200 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 16,663, of whom 9,220 were colored. A branch of the Southwestern railroad has its terminus at the county seat. The chief pro- ductions in 1870 were 2,140 bushels of wheat, 103,117 of Indian corn, 10,205 of oats, 29,560 of sweet potatoes, 53,147 Ibs. of butter, and 5,150 bales of cotton. There were 456 horses, 841 mules and asses, 1,257 milch cows, 2,184 other cattle, and 3,784 swine ; 1 manufactory of agricultural implements, 3 of brick, 3 of cotton and 3 of woollen goods, 2 of cotton and woollen machinery, 1 of engines and boilers, 4 foun- deries, and 5 flour mills. Capital, Columbus. MUSCOGEES. See CEEEKS. MUSCOVY. See RUSSIA. MUSCOVY DUCK. See DUCK:, vol. vi., p. 289. MUSES (Gr. fiovaai), in classical mythology, the goddesses originally of song, and afterward of all kinds of poetry and of the arts and sciences. According to the earliest legends, they had their principal seats in Pieria on Mt. Olympus and in Bo3otia on Mt. Helicon. Homer styles them the Olympian, and Hesiod the Heliconian ; according to the latter, how- ever, they were born on Olympus, and dwelt at a short distance from the pinnacle on which