Volume 1

A text-book of physiology / by Henry P. Bowditch [and others] ; edited by William H. Howell.

Date:
1900
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: A text-book of physiology / by Henry P. Bowditch [and others] ; edited by William H. Howell. 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.

    9/608 (page 5)
    PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITIOK Advantage has been taken of the necessity of issuing a second edition of the American Text-Book of Physiology to aher somewhat its general arrangement. The book has proved to be successful, and for the most part has met only with kindly and encouraging criticisms from those who have made use of it. Many teachers, however, have suggested that the size of the book, when issued in a single volume, has constituted to some extent an inconvenience when regarded from the standpoint of a student's text-book that may be needed daily for consultation in the lecture-room or the labora- tory. It has been thought best, therefore, to issue the present edition in two volumes, with the hope that the book may thereby be made more serviceable to those for whose aid it was especially written. This change in the appearance of the book has necessitated also some alteration in the arrangenient of the sections, the part upon the Physiology of Nerve and Muscle being transferred to the second volume, so as to bring it into its natural relations with the Physiology of the Central Nervous System. The actual amount of material in the book remains substantially the same as in tlie first edition, although, naturally, very many changes have been made. Even in the short time that has elapsed since the appearance of the first edition there has been much progress in physiology, as the result of the constant activity of experimenters in this and the related sciences in all parts of the world, and an effort has been made by the various conti'ibutors to keep pace with this progress. Statements and theories that have been shown to be wrong or improbable have been eliminated, and the new facts discovered and the newer points of view have been incorporated so far as possible. Such changes are found scattered throughout the book. The only distinctly new matter that can be referred to specifically is found in the section upon the Central Nervous System, and in a short section upon the modern ideas and nomenclature of physical chemistry, with reference es])ecially to the processes of osmosis and diffusion. The section dealing with the Central Nervous System has been recast in large part, with the intention of making it more suitable to the actual needs of medical students ; while a brief presen- tation of some of the elementary conceptions of physical chemistry seems to be necessary at the present time, owing to the large part that these views are taking in current discussions in physiological and medical literature. The index has been revised thoroughly and considerably amplified, a table of contents has been added to each volume, and numerous new figures have been introduced. August, 1900.