CHAPTER I 



THE ORGANIZATION OF THE INDIVIDUAL 



Our own bodies furnish an excellent example from which to study the 

 structure and functioning of the individual. Although man is one of the 

 more complex organisms, he is built upon the same basic plan as any 

 other familiar animal. Considered as a functioning biological machine, he 

 is little if at all more difficult to comprehend than would be a cat, a frog, 

 a fish, or even a spider or lobster. 



When we attempt to understand the structure and functioning of any 

 of these animals, we encounter the high development of organization 

 from which our overworked term organism is derived. This organization 

 is roughly comparable to that of some huge modern factory. In an auto- 

 mobile factory, for example, each worker or group of workers specializes 

 on some one detail. The work performed by any individual or group is 

 meaningless in itself, but the cooperation of some groups results in the 

 production of a motor, that of other groups in a chassis, of still others in a 

 body. Finally, when still other specialists have assembled motors, chassis, 

 and bodies into automobiles, we see that the highly organized and coordi- 

 nated specialization of workers, departments, and divisions forms a 

 complete and efficient whole. 



In the human body, or that of any higher animal, division of labor and 

 coordination are far more detailed and intricate than in any factory. Just 

 as in the factory, however, the differentiation of parts and division of 

 labor are so organized and related as to form a functioning whole — in this 

 case an individual organism. Fortunately for our ease of comprehension, 

 the several divisions, departments, and subdivisions of the animal body 

 can be classified into a relatively few types of organizational groups, no 

 matter how much they may differ in detail. The general plan of the 

 organization of the higher animals is illustrated by that of the human 

 body. 



SCHEME OF ORGANIZATION OF THE HUMAN BODY 



1. The living body is a self-maintaining unit or individual, composed of 

 a number of closely integrated systems. 



2. Systems are major physiological or functioning divisions of the body. 

 Each is concerned with the performance of some closely related group or 



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