Circulation I. [antikvár]

Preface The section on the circulation of the Handbook of Physiology is offered in three volumes. The first of these was planned to cover the physiology of the heart and its controls, along with certain material about the volume of the blood and the biophysical background of the organs of the circulation. The second volume was planned to include the functional morphology of the vessels and their coordination in regulating the distribution of blood flow to the several organs. The third volume was planned to deal with the circulation as the functions of an organ system whose normally coordinated or abnormal action plays upon the organism as a whole. This original plan has been modified somewhat in the interests of prompt authors and at the expense of tardy ones. Some have advanced into Volume I; we hope that some chapters originally scheduled for Volume I may be fitted into the later ones. The circulation is a subject whose ramifications are protean. Not only does it have an intrinsic regulation feeding back from the circulatory organs themselves, but changes in the circulation alter the functions of other organs which in turn work new changes in the circulation. Another complication in dealing with the physiology and biophysics of the circulation is the fact that certain fields are in vigorous controversy. It is to be expected, therefore, that some topics will be covered more than once by different authors. We have tried to provide that the two coverages are not mere repetitions and a great deal of material has been discarded for this reason. On the other hand if the overlap is not really an overlap, but shows the material or argument in different context, from different viewpoints, and with different interpretation, the outcome seems to us to be good. Each chapter is written in the hope that it will be an authoritative systematic account of the present status of the field and a contribution to Physiology as a science in its own right. The chapters are as detailed as over-all space will permit. Coverage of all the literature is not attempted. Citations are restricted, for the most part, to the factual evidence and theoretical interpretations that bear upon concepts that are seriously advocated at the present time. Recent contributions are not allotted space because of their recency, but only as they are constructive of current ideas. Each chapter is written to fit the needs of three groups of readers: /) the graduate student who wants to go more deeply and broadly into the meanings of current physiological concepts and their background than he can in standard text books; 2) the teacher who is dissatisfied with the comprehensiveness of his understanding outside his own specialty; and 5) the investigator who will use it as a springboard for references and current concepts in a field which he is beginning to explore. The contributions are written by qualified experts, modern in viewpoint, and emphatically are not esoteric polemics between specialists. In selecting these specialists, advice was sought on an international basis. One of us met in Ghent with a committee of representative European physiologists selected and chaired by Prof. C. Heymans. This group gave valuable advice concerning our tentative chapter list and nominated authors for each of the chapters. This editor also met with a similar group in London, selected by O. G. Edholm and Prof J. McMichael. In the hands of these men the plan was further revised and additional authors were nominated. The final selection of authors and alternates and the final revision of the plan were made by an ad hoc committee accepted by the Board of Publication Trustees and composed of knowledgeable members of our own Society. The