THE SYMPATHETIC DIVISION OF THE AUTONOMIC SYSTEM IN RELATION TO HOMEOSTASIS
- 1 August 1929
- journal article
- other
- Published by American Medical Association (AMA) in Archives of Neurology & Psychiatry
- Vol. 22 (2) , 282-294
- https://doi.org/10.1001/archneurpsyc.1929.02220020098005
Abstract
The living parts of complex organisms, such as human beings are, do not come into direct contact with the surrounding air. They are separated from the air by a layer of mucus or by a layer of dead horny skin. The actually living parts are embedded in the fluids which bathe the cells—the blood or the lymph. These fluids, as Claude Bernard1pointed out half a century ago, constitute the "milieu interne" or the internal environment. This internal environment, or, as it may be called, the "fluid matrix," of the living structures is a product of the organism itself, developing as the organism develops. Furthermore, it is controlled by the organism. As in the course of evolution organisms have become more perfect, it is noteworthy that they have become gradually more free from changes in the external environment; more free, for example, from changes of humidity, changes ofThis publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: