Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee.

  • Gamgee Arthur, 1841-1909.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Elements of human physiology / by L. Hermann ; translated from the sixth edition by Arthur Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    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 forced 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 since the application to the organic world of a great prin- ciple of modem science has taught us the relations which exist between the changes in the matter and the forces of organised beings. Eelying upon this knowledge, we beHeve 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 living 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 natm-e more precise views and more accurate research, and, although it has not ])een 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 organisni in which, by the chemical changes of its constituent -purts,poteyitiaL is converted into kinetic energy. • These chemical changes depend on the presence, within the organism, of energy-yielding substances. The greater number of the chemical operations which occm- in the living body, and which are accompanied with the manifestation of kinetic energy, are oxidations, or decompositions which depend on oxidation ; nevertheless, there are, in all probability, other pro B