Preface 



This Handbook of Physiology , like its predecessors from 

 von Haller on, is designed to constitute a repository 

 for the body of present pliysioiogical knowledge, 

 systematically organized and presented. It is addressed 

 primarily to professional physiologists and advanced 

 students in physiology and related fields. Its purpose 

 is to enable such readers, by perusal of any Section, 

 to obtain a working grasp of the concepts of that field 

 and of their experimental background sufficient for 

 initial planning of research projects or preparation 

 for teaching. 



To accomplish this purpose the editors have 

 planned a book which would differ from textbooks in 

 being more complete, more analytical and more 

 authoritative. It would differ from a series of mono- 

 graphs in being organized on a consistent plan with- 

 out important gaps between topics and with as nearly 

 as possible the same relation of intensity of coverage 

 to importance of topic throughout. It would differ 

 from publications emphasizing new developments in 

 that the background of currently accepted or classical 

 concepts would be set forth, newer ideas receiving 

 not more than their due proportion of emphasis 

 relative to the whole body of knowledge in the field. 

 Finally it would differ from a collection of original 

 papers on a series of topics in that it would provide an 

 integrated condensation and evaluation of the mate- 

 rial contained therein. Moreover, the overall plan 

 provides that the key experimental findings in the 

 development of each field of investigation be de- 

 scribed and discussed in sufficient detail (with appro- 

 priate illustrations, quantitati\e data and adequate 

 documentation) to make clear their nature, validity 

 and significance for the fundamental concepts of the 

 field. The success of this endeavor must be left to the 

 reader's judgment. 



This Handbook stands as the current representative 

 of an historic series of efforts to collect and system- 

 atize biological knowledge — a series continued when 

 the Board of Publication Trustees of the American 

 Physiological Society decided in 195;] to sponsor the 

 present undertaking. A brief list of notable prede- 

 cessors may interest .some readers. First known of 

 the series is a brief Sumerian 'pharmacopeia" dating 

 from perhaps 2100 B.C. Later examples included 

 several Egyptian papyri such as the Ebers and the 

 Edwin Smith. Far more extensive compilations char- 

 acterized the Greco-Roman period. Outstanding 

 among those were the Hippocratic collection (written 

 ijy several authors) and the encyclopedic writings 

 associated with the names of Aristotle, Theophrastus, 

 Celsus and Galen (Pliny's work is useful chieflv to 

 the student of folklore). These treatises systematized 

 knowledge of the day over a wide range and set forth 

 new information based on the authors' observations. 

 Thus they combined the roles of handbook and scien- 

 tific journal, a pattern that persisted until develop- 

 ment of scientific journals (in the seventeenth cen- 

 tury). Other important compilations were made by 

 the writers of the 'Moslem Renaissance' such as Rhazes 

 and Avicenna, to whom much of the Greco-Roman 

 literature was available. 



European biological compendia of the Christian 

 era, from the fourth century Physiologus to the exten- 

 sive biological encyclopedias of the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth centuries, differed greatly in character 

 from Greco-Roman and 'Moslem Renaissance' work. 

 Marked by strong theological and anthropocentric 

 orientation, they lacked the descriptive accuracy and 

 rational approach of the ancients. Scientia was con- 

 sidered ancillary to sapientia. Nature was studied 

 chiefly to obtain illustrations for moral tales and 



