W.F. GANONG

This book is designed to provide a concise summary of mammalian and, particularly, of human physiology which medical students and others can supplement with readings in current texts, monographs, and reviews. Pertinent aspects of general and comparative physiology are also included. Summaries of relevant anatomic considerations will be found in each section, but this book is written primarily for those who have some knowledge of anatomy, chemistry, and biochemistry.

Examples from clinical medicine are given where pertinent to illustrate physiologic points. Physicians desiring to  use this book as a review will find short discussions of important symptoms produced by disortered function in several sections.

It has not been possible to be complete and concise without also being dogmatic. I believe, however, that the conclusions presented without a detailed discussion of te experimental data on which they are based are those supported by the bulk of the currently available evidence. Much of the evidence can be found in the papers cited in the credit lines of the illustrations. Further discussions of particular subjects and information on subjects not considered in detail in this book can be found in the references listed at the end of each section. Information about serial review publications that provide up-to-date discussions of various physiologic subjects in included in the note on general references in the appendix.

In the interest of brevity and clarity, I have in most instances omitted the names of the many investigators whose work made possible the view of physiology presented here. This is in no way intended to slight their contributions, but including their name and specific references to original papers would greatly increase the length of this book.