viii PHYSIOLOGICAL PHYSICS. 



The method followed has been to take up one branch 

 of physics after another, to state as briefly as possible 

 the main elementary facts and principles of each branch, 

 to describe such apparatus as seemed desirable, and 

 then to note the physiological application of the facts 

 and adaptations cf the instruments. The subject of 

 electricity and magnetism lent itself most readily to 

 this method, and seemed of special importance in view 

 of the great development of electro-physiology and 

 therapeutics. This accordingly was the first to be 

 considered. The experiments described in this section 

 are all those which it has been customary to employ 

 here in illustration of the part of the course devoted 

 to the physiology of muscle and nerve. An effort has 

 been made so to describe them that the student might 

 take the book to the laboratory, and, with its aid, set 

 up and work out the experiments for himself. For this 

 purpose a considerable number of diagrams, showing 

 arrangements of apparatus, has been introduced. In 

 this respect the book differs considerably from Wundt's 

 Traite Elemeniaire de Physique Medicale or Grehant's 

 Manuel de Physique Medicale. to both of which, and 

 to the former especially, I have to acknowledge my 

 great indebtedness. 



To many other works I have to express my obliga- 

 tions : among them, to Du Bois-Reymond's Abhand- 

 lungen, etc., Morgan's Electro-Physiology and Thera- 

 peutics, Rosen thal's Electricitdts-lehre fur Mediciner, 



