Abstract
A MONG natural sciences physiology takes a place which in one respect is different from that taken by any other. It studies the phenomena of life, but more particularly the ways in which these phenomena are related to the maintenance of life. Anatomy and morphology are concerned with the forms of living organisms and their structure; biological chemistry, as distinct from physiology, with the composition of the material in which the phenomena of life are exhibited. The province of physiology, in studying the functions of these forms and of this material, is to ascertain the contributions that they make to the organisation of the living mechanism, and learn how they minister to the maintenance of its life. Function implies ministration; structure for physiology implies adaptation to function, what, in a word, may be termed design.
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LEATHES, J. Function and Design1. Nature 118, 519–522 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118519a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118519a0