Sharpey was the first occupant of the chair of anatomy and physiology at University College, London, this chair being the first official recognition of physiology in any English medical school. He wrote a memorable paper on cilia and ciliary motion. Through his students Sharpey was the founder of the British school of physiology. Among his pupils were Michael Foster, Burdon-Sanderson and Edward Schäfer.

The first modern, systematic textbook on physiology, presenting an authoritative and discerning survey of each aspect of the science. This is also one of the best reviews of physiological literature during the first part of the 19th century. Through an extensive series of publications and the Arch. Anat. Physiol, wiss. Med. which he edited, Müller made fundamental contributions to anatomy and physiology, pathological anatomy and histology, embryology, and zoology. Vol. 1 was issued in parts, 1833-34, and Vol. 2 was issued in parts, 1837-40. A somewhat abbreviated English translation was published, 1838-42.

Classical paper on ciliary epithelial motion. Reprinted in Purkynĕ’s Opera omnia (No. 82), pp. 277-371, 1918. English translation in Dublin J. med. chem. Sci., 1835, 7, 279-84.

Contributors included Richard Owen and Thomas Huxley, and physicians James Paget, James Young Simpson, and William Bowman.The discoveries of Purkynĕ and Valentin, together with additional observations by William Sharpey himself were embodied in an article on Cilia written by him and published in odd’s Cyclopaedia 1, 606-38. Digital facsimile from Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

A pioneering study of the physiology and biomechanics of motion and locomotion. The atlas contains four illustrations that were printed directly from actual bones embedded in plaster of Paris. This is one of the only medical books that included illustrations printed by a "nature printing" process. Translated into English by P. Maquet and R. Furlong, as Mechanics of the human walking apparatus, Berlin: Springer, 1992.

Matteucci established the difference of potential between injured nerve and its muscle.

Mayer demonstrated the principle of the conservation of energy as far as physiological processes are concerned.

Wagner was professor at Göttingen. His literary output was enormous. In the above work he contributed the sections on sympathetic nerves, nerve-ganglia, and nerve-endings. This work contained 63 extensive review articles from 30 authors.

Matteucci’s “rheoscopic frog” effect.

First description and definition of electrotonus.

A pupil of J. Müller, Emil du Bois-Reymond was the founder of modern electrophysiology. He introduced faradic stimulation and made an exhaustive investigation of physiological tetanus. Above is a collective edition of his writings on the subject. Extracts were translated into English in H.B. Jones, On animal electricity … London, 1852, and more extensive portions in C.E. Morgan, Electrophysiology and therapeutics, New York, 1868. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

An epoch-making work which led the way to the acceptance of the fundamental physical doctrine of the conservation of energy.

Helmholtz showed the muscles to be the principal source of animal heat.

Duchenne classified the electrophysiology of the entire muscular system and summed up his findings in the above work. The application of his results to pathological conditions marks him as the founder of electrotherapy. An Album de photographies pathologiques was published in 1862 to accompany the text of the second edition, 1861. Engl, trans. of 3rd ed., Philadelphia, 1871. See Nos. 1993 & 4543.

Duchenne, most famous of the electrotherapists, employed faradic current in treating patients as early as 1830. An English translation of the third edition of his book appeared in 1871.

Claude Bernard made strenuous efforts to introduce experimental methods into physiology. The above includes his classic work on the function of the liver, pancreas, and gastric glands. Vol. 1, p. 126: Catheterization of the heart of a dog (in some editions, p. 119). See also No. 634.

Bernard paralysed motor nerve-endings with curare and demonstrated the independent excitability of muscle. He showed that curare acted by stopping the transmission of impulses from motor nerves to voluntary muscles.

Kölliker and Müller were the first to measure action currents from cardiac muscle.

Includes description of “Rainey’s tubes” or “corpuscles” in connexion with the process of calcification of tissues.

Proof of the coagulability of muscle proteins.

One of the most interesting works of its time on the physiology of nerve. In it Pflüger first stated the laws governing the make and break stimulation of nerve with the galvanic current. Pflüger was a pupil of Müller and du Bois-Reymond.

Studies of the “paralytic secretions” occasioned by section of glandular nerves.

Among the instruments introduced by Fick for the study of muscle and nerve physiology were the myotonograph, the cosine lever, and an improved thermopile.

A monumental work, the result of twenty years’ study of electro-muscular stimulation “to determine the proper action which the muscles possess in life”. The book contains an excellent record of the kinesiology of the entire muscular system. English translation by E. B. Kaplan, Phila-delphia, 1949.

Hermann’s views on nitrogen metabolism in muscular work correctly anticipated the later conclusions of Fletcher, Hopkins, and others.

Flint made investigations on the nitrogen output of a long-distance walker, before, during, and after the latter’s attempt to walk 400 miles in five days. The useful data in this paper are often referred to in discussions on the subject. Edition in book form, New York, D. Appleton, 1871.

Haughton stated that the muscular mechanism is so arranged that its work is carried out with the minimum of muscular contraction. This he called the “principle of least action”. His opposition to Darwinism is especially noticed in this book.

Stirling, a pupil of Ludwig, became a great teacher of physiology. His paper on the summation of electrical stimuli to the skin was a prize thesis.

Eck developed the “Eck fistula” for the experimental study of diseases of the liver and the relation of the liver to metabolism. English translation in Surg. Gynec. Obstet., 1953, 96, 375.

Foster was one of the greatest of the modern teachers of physiology. He became professor at Cambridge in 1883. Many great scientists are numbered among his pupils. See G.L. Geisen, Michael Foster and the Cambridge School of Physiology. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 1978.

Charles Sherrington described the significance of Romanes' research on jellyfish in terms of its impact on cardiac physiology: "Romanes's observations carried out with simple means were novel and fundamental. The questions which he put to the swimming-bell [medusa or jelly-fish] and answered from it, led, it is not too much to say, to the development of modern cardiology. Medusa swims by the beat of its bell, and Romanes examining it discovered there and analyzed the two phenomena now recognized world-over in the physiology of the heart, and there spoken of as the 'pace-maker' and 'conduction-block'" (Sherrington quoted in W. Bruce Fye, "The origin of the heart beat: A tale of frogs, jellyfish and turtles," Circulation 76 (1987) 493-500.

Romanes’ work with electro-stimulation directly influenced W. H. Gaskell in his artificial production of heart block, the name for which Gaskell based on an expression of Romanes. See No. 829.

In this, his last work, Bernard showed himself “the unapproachable master in the technique of experimental procedure” (Garrison).

Forms vol. 6, pt. 1 of Hermann’s Handbuch der Physiologie.

Mosso invented the ergograph from the study of voluntary contraction. The description of the instrument is on pages 124-41 of the above article.

Investigation of the mechanics of motion of the knee joint on mathematical lines. See also No. 645.

Important studies on thermodynamics of muscular work.

Mosso investigated muscular fatigue with the ergograph of his invention. He showed fatigue to be due to a toxin produced by muscular contraction. English translation, 1906.

“Wolff’s law” stated that every change in form and function of a bone, or in its function alone, is followed by certain definite changes in its internal architecture and equally definite secondary alterations in its mathematical laws. English translation by P. Maquet and R. Furlong as The law of bone remodelling. Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1986.

Marey, like Muybridge (No. 650-51), was a pioneer in the use of serial pictures as a method of studying the mechanics of locomotion. English translation, 1895.

First exhaustive treatise on electrophysiology. English translation, 2 vols., London, 1896-98.

Classic study of the human gait. The authors calculated the external and internal forces involved in walking and described the kinematics and kinetics of the movement. Because of Braune's death in 1892 he could only complete his contributions to part 1; the remaining parts were completed and issued by Fischer. English translation of parts 1 and 2 by Paul Maquet & Ronald Furlong as The human gait. Berlin: Springer, 1987.

1. Versuche an unbelasteten und belasteten Menschen (XX1/4 (1895), 154-322 pp.

2. Die Bewegungen des Gesamtschwerpunktes und der äußeren Kräfte (XXV/1 (1899), 4-130 pp.,

3. Betrachtungen über die weiteren Ziele der Untersuchungen und Überblick über die Bewegungen der unteren Extremitäten (XXVI/3 (1900), 88-170 pp.

4. Über die Bewegungen des Fußes und der auf denselben einwirkenden Kräfte ((XXVI/7 (1901):, 472-556 pp.

5. Die Kinematik des Beinschwingens (XXVIII/5 (1903), 322-418 pp. 

6. Über den Einfluss der Schwere auf die Schwingungsbewegungen des Beines (XXVIII/7 (1904), 564-617  pp.

By Richet, Langlois, Lapique and numerous co-authors. Covers "A" - Moelle épinière only. Digital facsimile from the Biodiversity Heritage Library at this link.

Starling discovered the functional significance of the serum proteins.

A collective work and a classic textbook of physiology, edited by Schäfer using the original version of his last name. He was a pupil of Sharpey, and when that great man died without any known descendants Schäfer gave the name to his son, in order to perpetuate it. When Schäfer's son was killed in the war of 1914-1918, Schäfer added it to his own, i.e. Sharpey-Schäfer.

"Of particular interest are the four classic chapters by Charles Sherrington, one on the spinal cord, another on the parts of the brain below the cerebral cortex, yet another on cutaneous sensation, and the fourth on the muscular sense. According to Liddell (1960, p. 135), they were 'unique in the literature of physiology on those topics at the time, for width and accuracy of vision, projected from the past into the future. Now today after more than half a century they are still highly regarded for guidance and refreshment.' Also of great interest are chapters by J.N. Langley on the sympathetic or autonomic nervous system, and by Schäfer himself on the nerve cell and on the cerebral cortex" (Larry W. Swanson).

The first systematic study of the basal metabolism of normal individuals from childhood to old age.

Muybridge, an Englishman, made exhaustive photographic investigations of consecutive animal movements while he was in America. More than 100,000 photographs were embodied in his Animal locomotion. An electro-photographic investigation of consecutive phases of animal movements, 1872-85. Philadelphia, 1887. The great cost of producing this work of 11 folio volumes with 781 photo-engravings restricted its sale to a very few copies and the above two books are abridgements. This pioneer study of serial photography demonstrated the possibilities of motion pictures and foreshadowed modern cinematography. Reprinted New York, 1955. All 781 plates from the 1887 Animal locomotion were republished, New York, Dover, 1979, with introduction by A. Mozley.

5th edition (5 vols.), 1919-21; English translation (5 vols.), London, 1911-21. Luciani was professor of physiology successively at Siena, Florence, and Rome.

Bernstein’s studies on the nature of muscular contraction included the observation that changes in surface tension are a controlling factor in the development of the energy of muscular contraction.

Lapicque first defined “chronaxia”, the duration of excitation of tissue. Partial translation in J. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 233-34.

Edited by Winterstein.

Throughout his life Macewen devoted much time to the study of bone growth. His researches revolutionized ideas concerning osteogenesis.

Bayliss’s book treats of general physiology from the physical chemical point of view. For some years it remained the most important book of its kind, and today is still of great value for its historical information and its accurate bibliography. A fifth edition, edited by L. E. Bayliss, appeared in 1959-60.

Hill and Hartree made valuable contributions to the knowledge of the thermodynamics of muscle. See also Physiol. Rev., 1922, 2, 310-41, and Hill, A. V., Trails and trials in physiology: a bibliography 1909-1964, 1965.

In 1922 Hill shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Meyerhof "for his discovery relating to the production of heat in muscle." 

Read’s formula for computation of basal metabolic rate.

A classic work on muscle tone and posture, a subject upon which Magnus spent many years of study. He demonstrated among other things that the labyrinth is the one sense organ entirely concerned with posture and equilibrium. In this book Magnus also described the reflexes involved in mammal posture. The Magnus & De Kleijn reflexes are named after Magnus and his colleague Adriaan de Kleijn (1883–1949). The head and neck reflexes of mammals cause the body to follow automatically when the head moves. He also researched the reflexes of the intestines and phenomena such as motion sickness. English translation, New Delhi, 1987.

A detailed study of the physiology of skeletal muscle. A valuable historical introduction will be found on pp. 3-55, and the book includes an extensive bibliography.

Magnus demonstrated the function of the otoliths and semicircular canals of the inner ear in regulating the equilibrium of the body.

A discussion of the regulation of body fluids, hunger, thirst, temperature, oxygen supply, water, sugar, and proteins of the body, and the role of the sympathetic-adrenal mechanism.

Helmont was one of the founders of biochemistry. He was the first to realize the physiological importance of ferments and gases, and indeed invented the word “gas”. He introduced the gravimetric idea in the analysis of urine. Helmont published very little during his life. The above work is a collection of his writings, issued by his son, Franz Mercurius, who also worked with the Cabalist scholar/mystic, Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1636-89) on the expanded German language version (Sulzbach, Endters Söhne, 1683), considered the best edition of the text. English translation from the Latin, London, L. Loyd, 1662. The German edition was reprinted with notes by W. Pagel & K. Kemp, Munich, Kösel, 1971.

In this prelude to Boyle’s Sceptical chymist Boyle describes his corpuscular view of digestion, “giving recognition to the existence of the agents now designated the ‘enzymes’ ” (Fulton, Bibliography of Robert Boyle [1961] 25). The above work also contains Boyle’s first published accounts of chemical experiments.

Boyle’s law. The above pamphlet was appended to the second edition of Boyle’s The spring and weight of the air, 1662. The relevant passage is reproduced inj. F. Fulton’s Selected readings in the history of physiology, 2nd ed., 1966, pp. 8-10. Fulton published an annotated bibliography of Boyle’s works in 1956 (2nd ed., 1961).

Boerhaave was the first to separate out urea from urine, and to do so without adding chemical substances such as alcohol or nitric acid. He first published his method for isolating it in the above work. English translation, London, 1735.

Discovery of urea, independently of Boerhaave. Rouelle isolated urea as the alcohol-soluble substance from urine. He was the first to present proof of the high nitrogen content of urea.

Discovery of uric acid. English translation in his Chemical Essays, London, 1786.

Cystine, the first amino-acid to be isolated, was prepared by Wollaston from a urinary calculus. This was also the first report of cystinuria.

Chevreul characterized cholesterol.

Isolation of glycine and leucine.

A classic study of animal fats. Chevreul discovered that fats are composed of fatty acids and glycerol.

The process by which water passes through a membrane from a solution on the one side to another solution on the other side has been known, since the classic work of Dutrochet, as “endosmosis” or “exosmosis”; the pressure due to this passage of water has naturally been called “osmotic”.

The synthetic preparation of urea was the first occasion that an organic compound was built up from inorganic materials. Wöhler’s discovery led eventually to the brilliant results that have been achieved in attempts to synthesize other organic compounds. A French translation of this article appears in Ann. Chim. (Paris), 1828, 37, 330-34. English translation in Leicester & Klickstein (eds.), A source book in chemistry 1400-1900, Cambridge, Mass., 1952. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Isolation of creatine from muscle.

Isolation of chondrin and glutin.

Proof that putrefaction is produced by living bodies. Independently of Cagniard-Latour, Schwann discovered the yeast cell. He is regarded as the founder of the germ theory of putrefaction and fermentation.

The earliest demonstration of the true nature of yeast was made by Cagniard-Latour in 1836. All his work on the subject is summed up in this paper. Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Mulder gave the name protéine (protein) to a substance which he believed to be the essential constituent of all organized bodies. Later, with Liebig, he found there was no such definite compound, but the work remained to designate the nitrogenous products of which it was a mixture.

First classification of the organic foodstuffs and the processes of nutrition. With this book Liebig introduced the concept of metabolism into physiology. English translation, London, 1842.

Discovery that benzoic acid taken in with food is excreted in the urine as hippuric acid. (But see the footnote to p. 474 of Garrison’s History of medicine, 1929.)

Pettenkofer’s test for bile. Previously there had been no means of recognizing the presence of the bile salts.

Fehling’s test for sugar in the urine.

In this development of his theory of urinary secretion (see No. 1232) Ludwig made important observations on endosmosis.

Millon discovered a special reagent for proteids.

Liebig’s method of estimating urea.

Discovery of leucine and tyrosine in the urine.

Investigation of osmotic force; provided important information for the physiologists.

First important publication on coprosterol as a product of excretion.

Graham’s method of separating animal and other fluids by dialysis introduced the distinction between colloidal and crystalloid substances.

Investigation of the sugar-forming ferments.

Employing, for the first time, copper ferrocyanide as a semi-permeable membrane, Traube investigated osmosis and the permeability of membranes.

Jaffe discovered urobilin in the urine.

Discovery of urobilin in the intestines.

In 1869 Miescher discovered a substance which he termed nuclein (nucleoprotein), later shown to be the hereditary genetic material. He demonstrated it in pus cells. The discovery he first published in 1871. He was also first to suggest the existence of the genetic code (see Nature (Lond.), 1967, 215, 556).

Digital facsimile from Google Books at this link.

Vierordt’s spectral analyses of hemoglobin, bile and urine were of great value. He studied the variations in the spectrum of oxyhemoglobin produced by different dilutions of this substance and was thus able to estimate the hemoglobin content of the blood.

Isolation of indican in the urine.

The osmotic pressures of solutions were found by Pfeffer to be directly in proportion to the concentration of the solute and to the absolute temperature. English translation, 1895.