(1) Irritability: A Physiological Analysis of the General Effect of Stimuli in Living Substance (2) Studies on the Influence of Thermal Environment on the Circulation and the Body-Heat

Abstract

(1) THIS book is the outcome of the series of lectures given by Prof. Verworn under the Silliman Foundation of the University of Yale in 1911. Prof. Verworn has summarised the results of the investigations carried out by I his co-workers and himself during the past twenty I years, and in his preface he claims that he here presents “a uniform exposition of the general effects and laws of stimulation in the living substance.” The book is certainly wide in scope, and is divided into nine chapters. The first of l these is very interesting, as it deals with the historical aspects of the question, full credit being given to Francis Glisson as the founder of the doctrine of irritability. The subsequent lectures deal with the quality of the stimulus; the effects of stimulation, in which Prof. Verworn's well-known views on the so-called metabolic equilibrium are discussed in full; the processes and the nature of the conduction of excitation; the conception of specific irritability, and the refractory period and its relation to fatigue; the interference of excitations, and finally the processes of depression.

(1) Irritability: A Physiological Analysis of the General Effect of Stimuli in Living Substance.

By Prof. Max Verworn. Pp. xii + 264. (London: Oxford University Press; New Haven: Yale University Press, 1913.) Price 15s. net.

(2) Studies on the Influence of Thermal Environment on the Circulation and the Body-Heat.

By E. R. Lyth. Pp. vi + 72. (London: John Bale, Sons and Danielsson, Ltd., 1913.) Price 2s. 6d. net.