Contributions to Practical Physiology and Pharmacology (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Contributions to Practical Physiology and Pharmacology As all are aware of the limited amount of time provided for Physiology and Pharmacology in the modern medical course, and also, of the nature and aims of such courses, it is unnecessary to give lengthy reasons for the view that time-saving laboratory methods are desirable. By providing the student with simple, efficient and sturdy apparatus designed especially to meet the requirements of the courses, I believe much time now devoted to the purely mechanical side of the experimental work may be saved, thereby enabling him to perform more experiments in the allotted time. Also, his results will be more certain and accurate, and being less burdened with mechanical details, his mind will be freer to contemplate the physiological or pharmacological phenomena revealed during the time of the experiment, a point I would strongly emphasize. Finally, I believe that under such conditions the courses would have larger pedagogic values. The view has been held that by assembling, adapting and devising all of the separate pieces of apparatus for each experiment the student gains valuable practical training, both manual and technical. I believe the value of this feature of such courses has been overestimated in the past, and with modern preliminary requirements for medical students, I see no reason why the Physiologist or Pharmacologist should deem it a part of his duty to teach manual training or elementary physics. Only a very small percentage of such students become teachers or investigators in these fields, and the course with time-saving apparatus is not less stimulating - in fact, it is more so. From a purely technical standpoint, physiology has not kept abreast of her sister science physics, save in certain special fields. Even in muscle-nerve physiology there is no uniformity of methods in different laboratories. In general, the student is obliged to adapt apparatus to particular ends. Therefore, results are secured at the expense of much time, and the results themselves are prone to be inaccurate. The mechanical errors are great and imperfectly known, since for the most part such apparatus is not standardized. Also, time and the limitations of the apparatus render study of the finer and more ultimate phenomena impracticable. Pedagogically, for the time expended, the result is unsatisfactory. I believe that much can be done to remedy the condition, both by individual teachers and by co-operation between schools. The material presented in the succeeding pages is offered from this standpoint. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.