PEEFACE TO THE FIEST EDITION 



The elementary constituent of all 

 living substance and the substratum of 

 all elementary vital phenomena is the 

 cell. Hence, if the task of physiology 

 lies in the explanation of vital pheno- 

 mena, it is evident that general physio- 

 logy can be only cell-physiology. 



Modern physiology has arrived at a point in its development 

 where it must constantly extend its inquiries to the cell, the 

 elementary substratum of all life that exists upon the earth's 

 surface. It appears more and more clear that the general pro- 

 blems of life are cell-problems. This fact suggested to me the 

 idea of examining from the cell-physiological standpoint these 

 general problems, and the facts, theories, and hypotheses of the 

 nature of life — subjects which thus far had never received compre- 

 hensive treatment — and thus outlining a field in which the various 

 branches of special physiology might unite. In the present 

 book, therefore, I have made an attempt to treat general physio- 

 logy as general cell-physiology. 



In dedicating this effort to the memory of Johannes Mtiller, I 

 would express the obligation that we all owe to the work of our 

 great master in physiology. But, more than all else, I would indi- 

 cate Mtiller's comparative-physiological standpoint, a standpoint 

 that I have always strongly endeavoured to maintain in my own 

 work. The comparative method of dealing with physiological 

 problems, which Mtiller's researches made so extremely fruitful, 

 was unfortunately laid aside after his death, as physiology dealt 

 more and more with the special problems of the human body. 

 But it is now being shown constantly that the amount of material 

 available for work in this latter field is too small in view of the 

 variety of problems. Hence, if wrong and false generalisations 



