Dalton's “Human Physiology”

Abstract

THE seventh edition of this excellent work shows on almost every page that the author has submitted the previous edition to careful revision, with the result of producing a much better book in every respect. Statements are made more concisely and to the point; irrelevant or useless illustrations are suppressed; redundant sentences have been clipped and pruned till they express their meaning in the shortest form. Further, the arrangement of the book has been much improved. In the 6th edition, Dr. Dalton discussed the subject under the heads of “Nutrition,” “The Nervous System,” and “Reproduction,” whilst in the present edition he has subdivided the first section into “Physiological Chemistry” and “Nutrition,” properly so called. This arrangement has enabled him to describe more fully the chemical composition of proximate principles and to arrange the facts in a more natural order. As a matter of logical arrangement, it is doubtful how far Dr. Dalton is justified in treating of the Bile under “Digestion,” and the Glyco-genic Function of the Liver under “Absorption,” but no doubt he has felt the difficulty experienced by those who have been obliged to deliver a systematic course of lectures on physiology as to the natural position of those important functions. At what point do they come in, if it be the object of the teacher to describe facts in natural sequence and in such, a way as to help the student in grasping an idea of the entire mechanism? In the digestive process, the bile plays a comparatively unimportant part whilst the production of glycogen by the liver has little to do with absorption. Still both of these processes have a natural relation to the great functions under which Dr. Dalton has placed them, and an author may be excused for arranging them as he has done, on the ground that it is impossible for any one, with our present views of nutrition, to state precisely under what head, in any systematic treatise, these functions should be described.

A Treatise on Human Physiology, designed for the Use of Students and Practitioners of Medicine.

By John C. Dalton, Professor of Physiology and Hygiene in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York. 7th Edition. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1882.)