Physiology: The Science of the Body

In the last chapter we talked about the body fluids and saw that they can be subdivided into the tissue fluids, which surround the cells, and the blood, which is inclosed in a s...

We have now brought our description of the various things that happen in our bodies up to the point where we may begin to make some kind of summary of them; particularly in resp...

The three senses that give us information of what is happening beyond the surface of our bodies are smell, hearing, and sight. Since smell is closely related to taste, which was...

teachers the fundamental importance of proper care of the teeth. This includes not only the prevention of decay by daily thorough cleaning and the securing at intervals of not m...

We have tried to take up one by one the chief things that happen in the body, but thus far have emphasized their importance entirely in connection with bodily well-being; that i...

A good deal of what has been said thus far in the book applies to nearly all kinds of animals about as well as it does to man. We have now to take up a feature found only in two...

Every cell must have oxygen for its metabolism. This it must get from the tissue fluid upon which it fronts, and tissue fluid in turn must get it from the circulating blood. The...

We have learned to think of the cells which make up the body as dependent on the fluid which surrounds them for the various materials they require, and as a place into which the...

movement were listed. Chief of these was the act of locomotion; that is, the means by which we get from one place to another, an act which is, of course, of prime importance in...

Since protoplasm is so very soft and fragile it must be supported in all animals and plants except the very tiniest. The nature of the supporting framework has a great deal to d...

In the second chapter we saw that to make our muscles act in accordance with the information brought in by the sense organs some means of communication between them is necessary...

We have just seen that the underlying arrangement of the nervous system is one which makes communication possible between any sense organ in the body and any muscle; also that i...

Our account of the body has now reached the point where we can take up in detail the special activities of the different kinds of cells. The first to be considered is motion, bo...

through the sense organs. These bring information of the situation and we act accordingly. We may group the kinds of information which the sense organs furnish under three heads...

Physiology is the study of living things, so the first thing to be asked when we begin to think about physiology is how we are to know whether anything is alive or not. It is us...

A good deal has been said thus far about living cells without anything at all having been said to tell what they look like, or how they are made up, beyond the statement that th...

We have had a good deal to say thus far about power development in living animals, and have talked about food in connection with its use as fuel for the purpose. While we are on...

Everyone is familiar with the beguilingly helpless picture the tiny baby presents. The disproportionately large head, with aimlessly rolling eyes and toothless mouth, the frail...

We have talked about the necessity of power development in all living things, and have seen that power development depends on the oxidation of fuel. Of course, our fuel is the f...

Equal in importance to being alive is the power to go on living; therefore, having described the signs of life, our next task is to consider how that life is maintained. When th...

The metabolism that goes on in all our body cells results in the formation of waste products. The chief of these, carbon dioxide, is taken care of by means which were described...

When Alexander Pope wrote “The proper study of mankind is man,” he was thinking rather of man as a social being than as the possessor of an amazingly complex and interesting bod...

In order for the blood that circulates through the body to pass on to the body cells the materials which they need, it is evident that the blood itself must have some source fro...

In the last two chapters we have talked about the arrangement of the nervous system and its working as seen in simple reflex actions, and the special activities of the brain whi...

We have talked a good deal about muscles and the different sorts of activities they can perform. We have also mentioned the fact that the skeletal muscles are under accurate ner...