Physiology
Physiology (/ˌfɪziˈɒlədʒi/; from Ancient Greek φύσις (phúsis) 'nature, origin' and -λογία (-logía) 'study of')[1] is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system.
Absorption of water by roots, production of food in the leaves, and growth of shoots towards light are examples of plant physiology.
The biological basis of the study of physiology, integration refers to the overlap of many functions of the systems of the human body, as well as its accompanied form.
Due to the frequent connection between form and function, physiology and anatomy are intrinsically linked and are studied in tandem as part of a medical curriculum.
[13] The study of human physiology as a medical field originates in classical Greece, at the time of Hippocrates (late 5th century BC).
Like Hippocrates, Aristotle took to the humoral theory of disease, which also consisted of four primary qualities in life: hot, cold, wet and dry.
Unlike Hippocrates, Galen argued that humoral imbalances can be located in specific organs, including the entire body.
Galen also saw the human body consisting of three connected systems: the brain and nerves, which are responsible for thoughts and sensations; the heart and arteries, which give life; and the liver and veins, which can be attributed to nutrition and growth.
[20] Galen, Ibn al-Nafis, Michael Servetus, Realdo Colombo, Amato Lusitano and William Harvey, are credited as making important discoveries in the circulation of the blood.
In the same year, Charles Bell finished work on what would later become known as the Bell–Magendie law, which compared functional differences between dorsal and ventral roots of the spinal cord.
In the 1820s, the French physiologist Henri Milne-Edwards introduced the notion of physiological division of labor, which allowed to "compare and study living things as if they were machines created by the industry of man."
[24] In the 19th century, physiological knowledge began to accumulate at a rapid rate, in particular with the 1838 appearance of the Cell theory of Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann.
Claude Bernard's (1813–1878) further discoveries ultimately led to his concept of milieu interieur (internal environment),[28][29] which would later be taken up and championed as "homeostasis" by American physiologist Walter B. Cannon in 1929.
[31] In the 20th century, biologists became interested in how organisms other than human beings function, eventually spawning the fields of comparative physiology and ecophysiology.
[34][35] If physiology is perhaps less visible nowadays than during the golden age of the 19th century,[36] it is in large part because the field has given birth to some of the most active domains of today's biological sciences, such as neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology.
[43] On 3 July 1915, six women were officially admitted: Florence Buchanan, Winifred Cullis, Ruth Skelton, Sarah C. M. Sowton, Constance Leetham Terry, and Enid M.
