Our Bookshelf.: Physiology and Anatomy

Abstract

THE new edition of “Recent Advances in Physiology” well maintains the high standard set in its three predecessors. The whole book has been carefully revised, and two chapters are entirely new. These are of great importance. The first deals with the coronary circulation; the author briefly explains the experiments which have been carried out by physiologists, particularly Anrep and his collaborators, to determine the controlling factors of this circulation, and shows that these are, in order of importance, the arterial blood-pressure, chemical changes in the blood, and reflex control by the nervous system. In the second chapter the student is reminded of the long-accepted theory that pressure high up in the neck causes slowing of the heart by stimulation of the vagus. He now learns that this cardiac slowing is due to a remarkable reflex initiated in the dilatation at the root of the internal carotid artery, known as the carotid sinus. This reflex has been closely studied by the experimental method, and Prof. Lovatt Evans points out its importance in the regulation of blood-pressure when affected by such changes as severe haemorrhage and alteration in posture.

Recent Advances in Physiology.

Prof. C. Lovatt Evans. (The Recent Advances Series.) Fourth edition. Pp. xii + 446. (London: J. and A. Churchill, 1930.) 12s. 6d.