Principles of Animal Physiology

This is a comprehensive physiology textbook covering a wide range of relevant topics in biology, general physiology, and biochemistry as they relate to organ system operations. Regulatory and comparative aspects of body functions are emphasized. Similarities and differences of structure and function in various animal species are described in an effort to develop the basic concepts of organ function. It is a strong feature of this book to include many aspects of physical chemistry and theoretical biology and thus to provide an unusually broad background for an understanding of physiological principles. The book is divided into four main parts of increasing complexity. Part one deals with basic chemical and physical principles of biological systems, with cell constituents and cellular organization, and aspects of energetics, enzyme kinetics, and metabolism. It includes some useful aspects of the nature of biochemical evolution and provides a survey of the elements of comparative physiology. Part two contains a description of the basic units of regulatory systems. Within this context, the properties of cell membranes, aspects of excitability, synaptic transmission, contractility, and neuroendocrine control are surveyed. Part three is concerned with the systems subserving the regulation of the internal environment; i.e., the nature and types of circulatory and respiratory systems, water and solute regulation, and nutrition. The last section of the book is concerned with higher levels of sensory physiology, ranging from photo-and mechanoreception to animal communication. This is a well-written, unusually comprehensive physiology text. Its attractive features are the inclusion of many topics of biophysics and biology not usually found in similar texts. The book is well illustrated and each chapter has an extensive and well-selected list of references. It is especially recommended to graduate students in biology and those students in medical school with a deeper interest in how organs have evolved to subserve their functions.