The cover image was created by the transcriber, and is placed in the public domain.
THE BODY AT WORK
C.
D.
Fig. 1.—Photomicrographs of Cells of the Cortex of the
Cerebellum and Cerebrum.
THE BODY AT WORK
A TREATISE ON THE PRINCIPLES
OF PHYSIOLOGY
BY
ALEX HILL, M.A., M.D., F.R.C.S.
SOMETIME MASTER OF DOWNING COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
WITH 46 ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1908
[All rights reserved]
PREFACE
Few subjects are as well provided with text-books as physiology; yetit may be doubted whether the interests of the amateur of science havebeen adequately cared for. From his point of view there are certainobvious drawbacks to even the most admirable of text-books. Writing formedical students, their authors assume that their readers have passedthrough two years of preliminary training in physics, chemistry, andbiology; they take for granted that they will have the privilege ofsupplementing their study of the theory of physiology with practicalwork in a laboratory; they treat all parts of the subject with equalthoroughness. In this book I have endeavoured to describe the phenomenaof life, and the principal conclusions which have been drawn as totheir interdependence and as to their causes, in language which willbe understood by persons unacquainted with the sciences upon whichphysiology is based. I have omitted all reference to experimentalmethods and to the technique of the science, save when a knowledge ofthe means by which information has been obtained is essential to acomprehension of its bearing. I have passed over such sections of thesubject as are generally considered unsuitable for ordinary discussion.And since this book neither aims at being an introduction to thesystematic study of physiology, nor poses as an aid in the preparationfor professional examinations, I have treated with some thoroughnessthe more recondite and the more suggestive results of recent research,and have tried to indicate the trend of modern thought regarding[Pg vi]problems as yet unsolved. I have endeavoured to reflect the intrinsicinterest of the scie