PEEFACE 



BETWEEN the Physiology of Man and that of the Domestic 

 Animals there is no fundamental difference, and most of our 

 knowledge of human physiology has been acquired from 

 experiments upon the lower animals. But while the tissues 

 of a man, a dog, and a horse act much in the same manner, 

 the mode of nutrition of these tissues is somewhat different, 

 and requires special attention in the case of each. 



In this volume the attempt is made to give the essentials 

 of general physiology and of the special physiology of the 

 domestic animals in a form suitable to the requirements 

 of Students and Practitioners of Veterinary Medicine. The 

 book is not intended to take the place of the demonstrations 

 and practical work from which alone physiology can be 

 properly learned, but merely to supplement these and to 

 focus the information derived from them. 



The student must take every opportunity of acquiring a 

 really practical knowledge, and, to facilitate the more direct 

 association of the practical and systematic study of physi- 

 ology, throughout these pages references are made to de- 

 scriptions of the experimental and chemical work which the 

 student should try to do for himself or have demonstrated 

 to him. The histological structure of the tissues and organs 

 which is now studied practically in every school is here 

 described only in so far as it is essential for the proper 

 understanding of their physiology. 



D. N. P. 



vii 



