591.102 4°4 



V. 



Verworn's "General Physiology." 1 



WHEREVER there be two or three physiologists and zoologists 

 gathered together, the question of the scope and method of 

 physiology is discussed. From modern habit, and from the special 

 relation of physiology to medicine, the physiologist is accustomed to 

 defend the position that physiology is best advanced by the study of 

 higher animals. The zoologist, on the other hand, maintains that the 

 simple functions and properties of protoplasm are less clearly revealed 

 in higher animals on account of the specialisation of their tissues. 

 To this the physiologist makes the ingenious retort that in simple 

 creatures all the capacities of protoplasm are so united and confused 

 that it is impossible to distinguish them : in Amceba, for instance, you 

 cannot study nervous, or muscular, or excretory functions, because 

 the three occur simultaneously in the same mass ; while in man or 

 the guinea-pig you have cells and tissues in which the nervous, 

 excretory, and muscular qualities are isolated, or at least pre- 

 ponderate. In this treatise, Max Verworn is more inclined to the 

 zoological view : taking the phenomena of life and the qualities of 

 living material as his subject, he elucidates them by reference chiefly 

 to simple organisms, distributing his attention almost equally 

 between plants and animals. His treatise is not a text-book of 

 physiology in the current sense of the term : in it you shall find no 

 direct prolegomena to the study of medicine, but rather an examina- 

 tion of the fundamental phenomena of all living things. " A Treatise 

 on General Biology " would be a title more consonant with the 

 existing terminology of the sciences, and in this respect the dedication 

 to the memory of Johannes Mliller is noteworthy. 



Since we regard this treatise as a biological production of the 

 highest importance, and since we think that no biologist should 

 neglect it, a general account of its scope is the best method of 

 commending it to our readers. The first chapter, of 58 pages, 

 gives an account of the development of physiology from the earliest 

 times to the middle of this century — that is to say, practically, to the 

 end of Johannes Muller's time of activity. The author then discusses 

 the method of physiological inquiry, and after full treatment of 



1 " Allgemeine Physiologie." Ein Grundriss der Lehre vom Leben. Von Max 

 Verworn. Pp. 584, with 268 illustrations. Jena : Gustav Fischer, 1895. Price 

 is marks. 



