ON

PHYSIOLOGY:

AS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR KÜSS AT THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF STRASBOURG.

EDITED BY MATHIAS DUVAL, M.D.,

Formerly Demonstrator of Anatomy at the Medical School of Strasbourg;
Adjunct-Professor of the Medical Faculty of Paris, etc.

Translated from the Second and Revised Edition

BY ROBERT AMORY, M.D.,

FORMERLY PROFESSOR OF PHYSIOLOGY AT THE MEDICAL SCHOOL OF
MAINE, ETC.

ILLUSTRATED BY ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY WOODCUTS
INSERTED IN THE TEXT.

BOSTON:

LANE MEDICAL

CAMPBELL.

LIBRARY

14279
SAN FRANCISCO

JAMES

.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by

JAMES CAMPBELL,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

Cambridge:
Press of John Wilson & Son.

F34 H95a 1875

PREFACE

TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.

DURING an experience as a teacher in the department of Physiology at the Medical School of Maine, I found it a difficult matter to recommend to my class an English text-book in which the functions of living tissue were closely compared and combined with its texture, or, in other words, a book wherein the relations of Physiology to Histology were carefully presented. Undoubtedly there are many good works on Physiology to which the student can refer for a knowledge of the subject; but a concise treatise within the limits of the means of most medical students cannot be found, unless we except those written either in German or French. It is not claimed that the want is completely met, but a careful study of this manual will show that human Physiology is presented in a concise and interesting manner, and that recent investigations in other countries have not been overlooked. It may be that the peculiar views of Professor Küss have been strongly set forth; but yet it must be remembered that the positive exposition of a teacher in any department of instruction is more fruitful to the cause of education than the collection of a vast amount of undigested material.

"As an indication of the general method of the author, we would direct the attention of the student to the function assigned to the globule or cell in the series of

investigations of the living organism, and particularly to the office of the epithelial globules in absorption and secretion. The time is come for science no longer to explain as phenomena of osmosis other operations of absorption, secretion, etc., which belong essentially to living bodies; but to attribute these and similar acts to those functions or offices of globular or cellular elements which are essentially endowed with life, especially as their functions cease with the destruction or death of these elements.

"With due respect for those positions assumed by our author, in this second edition we have avoided giving too great prominence to any theories advanced by him. which seemed to bear too strongly towards the hypothetical, and reach too far beyond the tangible ground upon which the science of to-day rests; we especially refer to the study of the functions of chyliferous vessels as connected with the blood-vessels in the process of absorption."

The peculiarities of the original of Professor Küss and the French editor, Dr. Duval, have been conformed to as closely as consistent with the French idioms. The method of the author is concise and necessarily technical; and, although lucid, demands a systematic perusal of the work for its comprehension. An explanation of the technical terms is much aided by diagrammatic and other forms of illustration; so that the student will be rapidly advanced to a clear view of the whole, as to the subject and terminology employed.

Though an efficient compilation may be thought to serve a better purpose for the plan of a general textbook, no objection can exist against special works by expert physiologists: the special may serve as an introduction to that of wider extent.

Keeping in mind that our primary object should be to afford the most effective aid to the student, the body of materials has been enlarged and improved upon with judicious additions, new illustrations, and biographical quotations. We have endeavored to meet the want expressed in a recent review of a distinguished work on Physiology, that of "a well-digested text-book of Physiology adapted to the wants of the advanced student, which is still a desideratum in American scientific literature.. If the foreign books upon any subject are more meritorious than those of our own country, the preference for them is naturally and rightly exercised. For science is cosmopolitan; and the student consults his own interests and that of science at large by supplying himself with the most useful text-books, no matter what may be their nationality." In brief, we have made every effort, within the limits assigned us by the original plan, to lay before the student (and the physician whose time will not allow a prolonged study of larger and perhaps of less practical use in his professional practice-works on Physiology) a satisfactory treatise on Physiology in its present stage.

LONGWOOD, January, 1875.