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PRINCIPLES OF PHYSIOLOGY
Author(s) -
Stephen Solomon
Publication year - 1950
Publication title -
medical journal of australia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.904
H-Index - 131
eISSN - 1326-5377
pISSN - 0025-729X
DOI - 10.5694/j.1326-5377.1950.tb106794.x
Subject(s) - computer science , cognitive science , physiology , neuroscience , psychology , biology
IN the preface to the tenth edition of his well-known book "Principles of Human Physiology" (originally the work of E. H. Starling) C. Lovatt Evans states that "for the ultimate benefit of reviewers" he will not list the main features of the new edition, but will "leave the matter to their discernment",' In actual fact not a great quantity of new material has been added, but much rearrangement has taken place. Some of this rearrangement is dictated by the insertion of new material or the deletion of old; some is designed to improve on the previous edition; some seems to be just "for the ultimate benefit of reviewers". The difficulty of the author of a standard work such as this may be appreciated with sympathy in view of the spate of literature that has cascaded from the medical Press since the end of the second World War. It is a problem to be aware of it all, let alone to decide which of it is destined for the main stream of knowledge. Professor Evans has, probably rightly, been cautious. He has inserted brief accounts of a good deal of recent work, with references to important papers and books, but has made few lengthy additions; as a result he has added only 39 pages to the book without discarding much previous material. Sixty new figures have been added or substituted for old, the over-all total being increased by 25. Subjects on which new material is inserted include heat formation and free energy, the energy rich phosphate bond, chromatography, X-ray measurements of the eye, hypotheses of normal refraction, fainting, nor-adrenaline, growth (in relation to food intake), vitamins, the metabolism of tissue slices, the intermediary metabolism of carbohydrates, enzymes, colour vision and the Rh factor. Chapter VIn has been rewritten under the heading "Bioelectric Potentials", some of the material on electrical changes in living tissues having been transferred to the. previous chapter. A number of sections have been modified, for example, that on the localization of function in the cerebral cortex. In general, considerable effort has been made at least. to touch on significant changes in physiology; perhaps some subjects, for example, the Rh factor, are treated too briefiy. The method of revision used tends to produce a patchwork effect and cannot be expected to prove satisfactory for too many editions. This is a common fault of standard text-books, the re-writing of which is a formidable undertaking; but new wine does demand new wineskins.