药学英语第五版原文翻译.docVIP

. . 精品 精品 . 精品 Introduction to Physiology Introduction Physiology is the study of the functions of living matter. It is concerned with how an organism performs its varied activities: how it feeds, how it moves, how it adapts to changing circumstances, how it spawns new generations. The subject is vast and embraces the whole of life. The success of physiology in explaining how organisms perform their daily tasks is based on the notion that they are intricate and exquisite machines whose operation is governed by the laws of physics and chemistry. Although some processes are similar across the whole spectrum of biology—the replication of the genetic code for or example—many are specific to particular groups of organisms. For this reason it is necessary to divide the subject into various parts such as bacterial physiology, plant physiology, and animal physiology. To study how an animal works it is first necessary to know how it is built. A full appreciation of the physiology of an organism must therefore be based on a sound knowledge of its anatomy. Experiments can then be carried out to establish how particular parts perform their functions. Although there have been many important physiological investigations on human volunteers, the need for precise control over the experimental conditions has meant that much of our present physiological knowledge has been derived from studies on other animals such as frogs, rabbits, cats, and dogs. When it is clear that a specific physiological process has a common basis in a wide variety of animal species, it is reasonable to assume that the same principles will apply to humans. The knowledge gained from this approach has given us a great insight into human physiology and endowed us with a solid foundation for the effective treatment of many diseases. The building blocks of the body are the cells, which are grouped together to form tissues. The principal types of tissue are epithelial, connective, nervous, and muscular, each with i