Elements of human physiology / tr. and ed. from the 6th ed. by Arthur Gamgee, M.D.

  • Hermann, Ludimar, 1838-1914.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of human physiology / tr. and ed. from the 6th ed. by Arthur Gamgee, M.D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Leeds Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Leeds Library.

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    foEDICO-CHIRURClCAL SOCIETY INTKODUCTION. Physiology is the science which treats of the normal processes which have their seat in the living bodies or organisms of plants and animals. The processes which are characteristic of living beings, and whose sum constitutes life, may be classified as orderly changes of (1) their chemical constituents; (2) the forces which work within them; and (3) their form. Formerly an attempt was made to explain the peculiar processes which have their seat in the animal organism, by supposing it to be endowed with pro- perties special to it, and heritable, depending on a supposed ' vital force: This vague conception has, however, been abandoned since the laws of inorganic nature have been discovered to preside over the most thoroughly investigated processes of life, and es- pecially smce the application to the organic world of a great prin- ciple of modern science has taught us the relations which exist between the changes in the matter and the forces of organised beings. Belying upon this knowledge, we believe that the forces of living are the same as those of inanimate bodies, and that they obey the same laws; and, consequently, that it will ultimately be pos- sible to explain the hitherto incomprehensible phenomena of livino- beings, particularly their morphological processes, by physical and chemical laws This conception possesses, quite apart from its probability, the great merit of introducing into the study of organic nature more precise views and more accurate research, and, although it has not been rigidly proved, will, in the present work tacitly underlie the exposition of the processes of the human organism. _ The human body, like that of every other animal, is an organ ism Z T^Z \ J ? ;heTal Changes 0f its constit*ent ^potential is converted into kmehc energy. or °n the Presence> the organism, of energy-yielding substances. the Hvinf 1k!i ''^vt the chemical operations which occur in S S b°dy' and whl<* are ac<*mpauied with the manifesto ion ot kinetic energy, are oxidations, or decompositions which denend on oxidation ; nevertheless, there are, in J^m^o^Zo u