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Additional reading

General features of muscles and muscle systems
Basic information at various levels of difficulty may be found in Geoffrey H. Bourne (ed.), The Structure and Function of Muscle, 2nd ed., 4 vol. (1972–73), a collection of important articles on most aspects and types of muscles; Graham Hoyle, Muscles and Their Neural Control (1983), which includes a survey of the diverse kinds of muscle found in different animals; Thomas A. McMahon, Muscles, Reflexes, and Locomotion (1984), a book that ranges from basic muscle mechanics to the mechanics of walking and running; R.B. Stein, Nerve and Muscle: Membranes, Cells and Systems (1980), a comprehensive treatment of the biophysics of muscles; and “Design and Performance of Muscular Systems,” Journal of Experimental Biology, 115:1–412 (1985), an entire volume devoted to the proceedings of an important conference.

Invertebrate muscle systems

R. McNeill Alexander, The Invertebrates (1979), is a survey that emphasizes the mechanics of movement. E.R. Trueman, The Locomotion of Soft-Bodied Animals (1975), is mainly about worms and mollusks.

Vertebrate muscle systems

Sources include Alfred Sherwood Romer and Thomas S. Parsons, The Vertebrate Body, 6th ed. (1986), a textbook of comparative anatomy that describes the embryonic development and evolution of the vertebrate muscular system; and Warren F. Walker, Vertebrate Dissection, 7th ed. (1986), a laboratory manual for comparative anatomy that gives a thorough description of the muscular systems of the dogfish, mud puppy, cat, and rabbit. Milton Hildebrand, Analysis of Vertebrate Structure, 3rd ed. (1988); and Alfred Sherwood Romer, The Vertebrate Story, 4th ed. (1959, reprinted 1971), are reference texts on vertebrate muscle.

Human muscle systems

Information on the unique human musculature can be found in Ernst Huber, Evolution of Facial Musculature and Facial Expression (1931, reprinted in Evolution of Facial Expression, 1972), detailed presentations of the evolution of two important groups of muscles; Arthur Keith, “Man's Posture: Its Evolution and Disorders,” British Medical Journal, 1:451–454, 499–502, 545–548, 587–590, 624–626, 669–672 (March 17–April 21, 1923), a classic summary of the adaptation of musculature to upright posture; and Paul E. Klopsteg et al. (eds.), Human Limbs and Their Substitutes (1954, reprinted 1968), a comprehensive review of normal human limbs and their artificial replacements.

Muscle types

Striated
Bernard Katz, Nerve, Muscle, and Synapse (1966), is an excellent brief work. Gerald H. Pollack, “The Cross-Bridge Theory,” Physiology Reviews, 63(3):1049–1113 (July 1983), is a good summary of minority views suggesting alternatives to the cross-bridge theory. See also Eric R. Kandel and James H. Schwartz, Principles of Neural Science, 2nd ed. (1985).Works on muscle contraction include J.R. Bendall, Muscles, Molecules and Movement: An Essay in the Contraction of Muscles (1969), with numerous references to original papers; Graham Hoyle, Comparative Physiology of the Nervous Control of Muscular Contraction (1957), a review of the literature for the general reader of biology; Andrew Huxley, Reflections on Muscle (1980), rich in history and inidentifying unsolved problems; and John Squire, The Structural Basis of Muscular Contraction (1981). Several useful journal articles are found in Scientific American: Carolyn Cohen, “The Protein Switch of Muscle Contraction,” 223(3):36–45 (November 1975); Graham Hoyle, “How Is Muscle Turned On and Off?” 222(4):84–93 (April 1970); H.E. Huxley, “The Mechanism of MuscularContraction,” 213(6):18–27 (December 1965); Keith R. Porter and Clara Franzini-Armstrong, “The Sarcoplasmic Reticulum,” 212(3):73–80 (March 1965); and David S. Smith, “The Flight Muscles of Insects,” 212(6):76–88 (1965).

Cardiac

Diseases of the heart are discussed in Norman R. Alpert (ed.), Myocardial Hypertrophy and Failure (1983); Eugene Braunwald, John Ross, Jr., and Edmund H. Sonnenblick, Mechanisms of Contraction of the Normal and Failing Heart, 2nd ed. (1976), providing information on structure, metabolism of heart muscle, operation of the heart, and heart failure; and Harry A. Fozzard et al., The Heart and Cardiovascular System: Scientific Foundations, 2 vol. (1986).

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