PREFACE.
This Primer is an attempt to explain in the most simple manner possible some of the most important and most general facts of Physiology, and may be looked upon as an introduction to the Elementary Lessons of Professor Huxley.
In my descriptions and explanations I have supposed the reader to be willing to handle and examine such things as a dead rabbit and a sheep’s heart; and written accordingly, I have done this purposely, from an increasing conviction that actual observation of structures is as necessary for the sound learning of even elementary physiology, as are actual experiments for chemistry. At the same time I have tried to make my text intelligible to those who think reading verbal descriptions less tiresome than observing things for themselves.
It seemed more desirable in so elementary a work to insist, even with repetition, on some few fundamental truths, than to attempt to skim over the whole wide field of Physiology. I have therefore omitted all that relates to the Senses and to the functions of the Nervous System, merely just referring to them in the concluding article. These the reader must study in the “Elementary Lessons.”
M. Foster.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
| ART. | SECT. | ||
| I. | [ INTRODUCTION.] | ||
| PAGE | |||
| [1.] | “ | What Physiology is | [1] |
| [2.] | “ | Animals move of their own accord | [1] |
| [3.] | “ | Animals are warm | [3] |
| [4.] | “ | Why animals are warm and move about—they burn | [4] |
| [5.] | “ | The need of Oxygen | [5] |
| [6.] | “ | The waste matters | [5] |
| II. | [THE PARTS OF WHICH THE BODY IS MADE UP.] | ||
| [7.] | “ | The Tissues | [7] |
| [8.] | “ | The cavities of the Thorax and Abdomen | [9] |
| [9.] | “ | The Vertebral Column | [12] |
| [10.] | “ | Head and Neck | [15] |
| [11.] | “ | Nerves | [18] |
| [12.] | “ | General arrangement of all these parts | [19] |
| III. | [WHAT TAKES PLACE WHEN WE MOVE.] | ||
| [13.] | “ | The Bones of the Arm | [21] |
| [14.] | “ | The structure of the Elbow Joint | [23] |
| [15.] | “ | Other joints in the body | [25] |
| [16.] | “ | The arm is bent by the contraction of the Biceps Muscle | [26] |
| [17.] | “ | How the will makes the Biceps Muscle contract | [32] |
| [18.] | “ | The power of a muscle to contract depends on its being supplied with blood | [35] |
| [19.] | “ | It is the food in the blood which gives the muscle strength | [37] |
| [20.] | “ | The continual need of food | [38] |
| IV. | [THE NATURE OF BLOOD.] | ||
| [21.] | “ | The Blood in the Capillaries | [40] |
| [22.] | “ | The Corpuscles of the Blood | [42] |
| [23.] | “ | The clotting of Blood | [45] |
| [24.] | “ | The substances present in Serum | [48] |
| [25.] | “ | The minerals in Blood | [50] |
| V. | [HOW THE BLOOD MOVES.] | ||
| [26.] | “ | The Arteries, Capillaries, and Veins | [51] |
| [27.] | “ | The Sheep’s Heart | [55] |
| [28.] | “ | The Course of the Circulation | [58] |
| [29.] | “ | Why the blood moves in one direction only; the Valves of the Veins | [64] |
| [30.] | “ | The Tricuspid Valves of the Heart | [66] |
| [31.] | “ | The pulmonary Semilunar Valves | [71] |
| [32.] | “ | The left side of the Heart | [72] |
| [33.] | “ | What makes the blood move at all: The beat of the Heart | [76] |
| [34.] | “ | The action of the Heart as a whole | [79] |
| [35.] | “ | The Capillaries and the Tissues | [82] |
| VI. | [HOW THE BLOOD IS CHANGED BY AIR: BREATHING.] | ||
| [36.] | “ | Venous and Arterial Blood | [85] |
| [37.] | “ | The change from Arterial to Venous, and from Venous to Arterial Blood | [87] |
| [38.] | “ | The Lungs | [88] |
| [39.] | “ | The renewal of Air in the Lungs. How the descent of the Diaphragm expands the Lungs | [90] |
| [40.] | “ | The natural distension of the Lungs. Inspiration. Expiration | [91] |
| [41.] | “ | How the Diaphragm descends | [96] |
| [42.] | “ | The Chest is also enlarged by the movements of the Ribs and Sternum | [98] |
| [43.] | “ | Breathing an involuntary act | [100] |
| [44.] | “ | Tidal air; stationary air | [101] |
| VII. | [HOW THE BLOOD IS CHANGED BY FOOD: DIGESTION.] | ||
| [45.] | “ | Why the inside of the mouth is always red and moist | [103] |
| [46.] | “ | Why the Skin is sometimes moist. Sweat Glands | [106] |
| [47.] | “ | The Mucous Membrane of the Alimentary Canal and its Glands | [109] |
| [48.] | “ | The Salivary Glands, Pancreas and Liver | [111] |
| [49.] | “ | Food-stuffs | [113] |
| [50.] | “ | How proteids and starch are changed | [115] |
| [51.] | “ | Lacteals and Lymphatics | [117] |
| [52.] | “ | What becomes of the Food-stuffs | [120] |
| VIII. | [HOW THE BLOOD GETS RID OF WASTE MATTERS.] | ||
| [53.] | “ | The need of getting rid of Waste Matters | [123] |
| [54.] | “ | The Kidneys get rid of Ammonia in the form of Urea | [125] |
| [55.] | IX. | [THE WHOLE STORY SHORTLY TOLD.] | [127] |
| [56.] | X. | [HOW WE FEEL AND WILL.] | [130] |