PREFACE. 



The object in view in the preparation of this volume was the 

 selection and presentation of the more important facts of physiology, 

 in a form which it is believed will be helpful to students and to 

 practitioners of medicine. Inasmuch as the majority of students in 

 a medical college are preparing for the practical duties of professional 

 life, such facts have been selected as will not only elucidate the 

 normal functions of the tissues and organs of the body, but which 

 will be of assistance in understanding their abnormal manifestations 

 as they present themselves in hospital and private work. Both in 

 the selection of facts and in the method of presentation the author 

 has been guided by an experience gained during twenty years of 

 active teaching. 



The description of physiologic apparatus and the methods of 

 investigation, other than those having a clinical interest, have been 

 largely excluded from the text, for the reason that both are more 

 appropriately considered in works devoted to laboratory methods 

 and laboratory instruction, and for the further reason that the student 

 receives this information while engaged in the practical study of 

 physiology in the laboratory, now an established feature in the 

 curriculum of the majority of medical colleges. For those who have 

 not had laboratory opportunities a brief account of some essential 

 forms of apparatus and the purposes for which they are intended 

 will be found in an appendix. 



I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Colin C. 

 Stewart for many valuable suggestions in the preparation of different 

 sections of the volume; to Dr. Carl Weiland for assistance in the 

 chapter on vision; to Dr. Joseph P. Bolton for excellent suggestions 

 on questions relating to physiologic chemistry. 



