I N this chapter, we address the history of the study of anaerobic metabolism during exercise. Our emphasis is on the early origins and progression of studies on phosphagen and glycolytic metabolism. Further, although our topic is "anaerobic" metabolism, we consider the interrelationship between oxygen and lactic acid production to be of primary importance. Other areas of this broad topic receive less attention; space limitations required us to focus on what we believe to be the more important events and their consequences. For information on studies and scientists before approximately 1900, we relied heavily on Fletcher and Hopkins (63), Keilin (99), Leicester (105), von Muralt (153), Rothschuh (141), Williams (164), and Zuntz (168).THE PRELACTIC AciD ERA
Fennentation and the Pasteur EffectDespite the fact that von Muralt (153) called the study of muscle metabolism before 1907 the "prelactic acid era," numerous important observations relating to glycolysis and lactic acid were made during this period. The notion that lactic acid is formed as the result of oxygen lack can be traced to alcohol fermentation technology of the 322 C. M. Tipton (ed.), Exercise Physiology