Principles Of Human Physiology (1920)

[Amazoniac]

Principles of human physiology : Starling, Ernest Henry, 1866-1927 : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive

It is the best one that I found so far (old books on the subject). There are no multiple authors involved (mostly one, but also another one that complemented the book), so the guy had to understand, integrate and condense the whole picture. Not only that, but due to not knowing enough of the details, the author had rely on the basics, and develop the book on the fundamental things. That way, it's a much easier read, and could be an introduction to other (more complex) recent books on physiology.

Members that might be interested: @pboy @RedLightMan @tara

 

[Amazoniac]

"The absorption of these disaccharides occurs therefore much more slowly from the intestine than does the absorption of monosaccharides, the process of absorption being always preceded by and waiting for the process of hydrolysis. Thus huge doses of cane sugar may be taken without causing the appearance of cane sugar in the blood or urine. It has been found that sugar does not appear in the urine until as much as 320 grm. of cane sugar have been ingested, whereas any quantity of glucose over 100 grm. may give rise to glycosuria."

 

[Rafe]

Beautiful find. Thank you so much.

 

[Amazoniac]

"In these the absorption of the constituents of a meal, whether consisting of fats, proteins, or carbohydrates, is practically complete by the time that the food has arrived at the lower end of the ileum. The faeces, in fact, are not derived from the food, but are produced almost entirely in the alimentary canal itself. This is shown by the fact that on analysing the faeces no soluble carbohydrates or proteins, albumoses, peptones, or amino-acids are to be found. After a meal of meat microscopic examination of the faeces reveals no trace of striated muscle fibres. Moreover, animals in a state of complete starvation form faeces which do not differ in their composition from the faeces which are found after feeding with meat, eggs, sugar, or cooked starch, though the amount is less in a state of inanition than under normal circumstances."
"The material basis of the faeces seems to be largely desquamated epithelial cells from the intestinal wall, and bacteria, of which countless numbers, chiefly dead, are present."

 

[Amazoniac]

"From the physiological standpoint the most important intracellular depot of fat is in the liver. If this organ be deprived of glycogen and fat by starvation, a fatty meal gives rise to a great deposition of fat in its cells. There is apparently an antagonism between the processes which lead on the one hand to the deposition of glycogen and on the other to the deposition of fat. Thus an excessive carbohydrate diet, which induces great deposition of fat in the subcutaneous tissues, causes only the formation of glycogen in the liver. The glycogen must be got rid of before it is possible to cause the deposition of fat. On this account, the normal content in fat of the livers of different animals varies with their ordinary diet. Fishes, e. g. the cod, which take but little carbohydrate in their food, have generally a very large quantity of fat in their livers. Herbivorous animals, as a rule, have practically no fat in the liver."

 

[Amazoniac]

"The presence or absence of visible fatty globules affords very little clue to the total quantity of fat in the cells. Thus in one case the heart muscle, which had undergone extreme fatty degeneration and was loaded with fat globules, contained 19 per cent, of its dried weight of fat. A heart muscle taken from a normal animal at the same time, presenting no visible fat globules, contained 17 per cent, of fat."

 

[Amazoniac]

"Two dogs, after a preliminary period of starvation, were fed, one on a diet containing a large proportion of linseed oil, and the other on a diet containing much mutton suet. After some weeks, when the animals had put on a large amount of fat, they were killed, and it was found that whereas the fat of the dog which had been fed on mutton suet was solid at 50dC., that of the dog fed on oil was still fluid at 0dC. It has been shown moreover that, by feeding animals with fatty acids not usually found in the body, these are laid down in the adipose tissue."
"One must conclude therefore that the fats taken with the food, if not immediately required for the energy needs of the body, are laid down without change in the adipose tissues, as well as in the cells of the body."

 

[Amazoniac]

"In the fat formed from carbohydrate the two saturated acids, palmitic and stearic acid, predominate. On this account the fat has a firm consistency and a high melting-point. The fats of low melting-point, such as olein, are absorbed more readily from the intestine than those of high melting-point."

 

[Amazoniac]

"[In starvation,] This loss of weight does not affect all parts of the body alike. It might be imagined that, since the loss of weight is determined by the using up of the tissues of the body for the production of energy, those organs which are most active should show also the greatest loss of weight. The very reverse of this is the case, as will be seen from the following Table:"

"A similar predominance of the nutrition of active over inactive tissues is to be observed in cases of partial starvation, i. e. where the deprivation of food applies only to a single food constituent. Thus Voit, in a series of experiments, fed pigeons on a food which, while normal in all other respects, contained a deficiency of calcium salts. On killing the birds after a certain length of time, it was found that while the bones used in the necessary movements of the animals presented a normal appearance, the others, such as the sternum and skull, showed a marked deficiency of lime salts and had undergone a process of rarefaction giving rise to the condition known by pathologists as osteoporosis. Many other instances of the sacrifice of a temporarily useless tissue on behalf of tissue of high physiological value are known."

"An adult salmon leaves the sea in the early summer months in a magnificent state of muscular development, fit to perform the prodigious feats of swimming which are required in order to get it over the rapids of the river which it has to ascend. It takes no food. In the upper reaches of the stream or river there is a growth of 'the genital glands, ovaries, or testes. The whole material for the growth of these large organs is derived from the atrophy of the skeletal muscles. In this case we have the growth of an active tissue at the cost of an inactive one, the activity however being determined; not by the direct call upon it from the environment, but by what we may speak of as the 'physiological habit' of the animal."
I could hear haidut adjusting his posture on his chair after reading this one out of inquietness.

 

[ecstatichamster]

Gold...thank you.

 

[haidut]

I could hear haidut adjusting his posture on his chair after reading this one out of inquietness

Lol, why so?
...and thanks for this gem of a book!

 

[Amazoniac]

Lol, why so?
...and thanks for this gem of a book!

Because the salmons have been genetically programmed to undergo those changes during reproduction, especially the atrophy part..

 

[haidut]

Because the salmons have been genetically programmed to undergo those changes during reproduction, especially the atrophy part..

Hhm, then why would he call it the "'physiological habit' of the animal."? Habit and genes do not mix well. Habit is not heritable, if you ask the modern genetic gurus. I am against the idea of evolution being random and genes causing diseases, not against genes carrying important information about the environment (but still information with exponentially decaying relevance for every new generation).

 

[Amazoniac]

Hhm, then why would he call it the "'physiological habit' of the animal."? Habit and genes do not mix well. Habit is not heritable, if you ask the modern genetic gurus. I am against the idea of evolution being random and genes causing diseases, not against genes carrying important information about the environment (but still information with exponentially decaying relevance for every new generation).

haidut, your brain matter is so heavy that it sometimes can compress the humor part of itself depending on your posture on the chair..
The changes that happen due to "physiological habit" is exactly the part that I thought that would make you smile!

 

[Amazoniac]

"Except in cases where the cutaneous vessels are much dilated, the temperature of a thermometer in the axilla takes a considerable time to rise to that of a thermometer in the mouth; it should never be left less than ten minutes in this situation."

 

[Amazoniac]

"There is evidence that some of the ferment [aka enzymes, in the hoods] actions are reversible. Thus maltase acts on maltose with the formation of two molecules of glucose. If the maltase be added to a concentrated solution of glucose, we get a reverse effect, with the production of a disaccharide which has been designated as isomaltose or revertose. To this reverse action may be due a certain amount of the retardation observed in the action of trypsin on coagulable protein. A more important factor is probably the combination of the ferment itself with the end-products and the consequent removal of the ferment from the sphere of action. Several facts speak for such a mode of explanation. Thus the action of lactase on milk sugar is not retarded by both its end-products, namely, glucose and galactose, but only by galactose. In the same way the action of invertase on cane sugar is retarded by the end-product fructose, but not at all by the other endproduct, glucose."
"Thus it has been shown that invertase ferment, which is destroyed when heated in watery solution at a temperature of 60 C., can, if a large excess of its substrate, cane sugar, be present, be heated 25 higher without undergoing destruction. The same protective effect is observed in the case of trypsin. Trypsin in watery or weakly alkaline solutions undergoes rapid decomposition. At 37 C. it may lose 50 per cent, of its proteolytic power within half an hour. If, on the other hand, trypsin be mixed with a protein such as egg albumin or caseinogen, or with the products of its own action, namely, albumoses and peptones, it can be kept many hours without undergoing any considerable loss of power."

 

[Amazoniac]

"In the present work the elucidation of the functions of man will also be our first concern, and this for two reasons. In the first place, in physiology, as in all other sciences, the motive of man's activity is his social instinct to increase the power of his race in the struggle for existence, by the acquisition of control, either over the external forces of nature, which may be turned to his own benefit, or over the factors, intrinsic and extrinsic, which tend to his enfeeblement or extirpation by disease and death. Consciously or unconsciously, all our researches on physiology, whether on the higher animals or on the lowest protozoa, have the welfare of man as their ultimate object. In the second place, the choice of the higher animals as our chief objects of study receives justification from the fact that whereas morphology, or the science of structure, must proceed from the lowest to the highest organisation, the science of function presents its problems in their simplest form in the most highly differentiated organisms. In the unicellular animal all the essential functions which we associate with living beings are carried out, often simultaneously, in one little speck of protoplasm. An analysis of these functions, the determination of their conditions and mechanism, is obviously impossible under Such_ circumstances. It is only when, as in the higher animals, one part of the living body is differentiated into an organ which has one function and one function only as the outlet for its activities, that it becomes possible to peer into the details of the function with some chance of discovering its ultimate mechanism."

Analyzing living systems we often have to pull... | Ray Peat Forum

 

[haidut]

haidut, your brain matter is so heavy that it sometimes can compress the humor part of itself depending on your posture on the chair..
The changes that happen due to "physiological habit" is exactly the part that I thought that would make you smile!

Lol, got it
I think I spend way too much time reading. I need to go out and drink some beer.

 

[Amazoniac]

Lol, got it:)
I think I spend way too much time reading. I need to go out and drink some beer.

..or it happens because you receive 145 alerts in a day, and you have to screen the comments for key words. Ain't got time for jokes.

 

[haidut]

..or it happens because you receive 145 alerts in a day, and you have to screen the comments for key words. Ain't got time for jokes.

Definitely right on the first part. I try to find time for jokes no matter what. You know, "keeping fun up and stress down" an all that. Apparently not very successful