Early Concepts of Physiological Regulations

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Abstract
"...the concept of physiological regulation was not discovered, but rather it crystallized slowly from vagueness to definiteness. Some of the steps in its crystallization are recognizable, particularly the great step by which experiments became its basis in the hands of Lavoisier, then of Bernard. None of the steps were conscious ones; indeed, few of those who added precision to the concept knew that they had forerunners. Their precision arose, it seems, from the general progress of scientific observations and not from the search for particular details about regulations. The atmosphere of the times sometimes supplied corrections to the earlier concepts, sometimes multiple attempts at statement yielded some few which we identify today as advances." "The historical sequence in which partial concepts about physiological regulation were enunciated was: (a) Constancy of constitution is secured by blending of opposing tendencies (Alcmaeon). (b) Living beings are self-maintaining, self-renewing, and self-repairing (Hippocrates), (c) Constituent structures serve special functions in securing continuity of the body (Aristotle). (d) Channels of acquisition or loss determine whether structures and functions may continue (Galen). (e) Irritations arouse responses both acquisitive and defensive, that preserve the body (Descartes, Glisson). (f) Regulation may consist in governed exchanges of substance (Lavoisier). (g) Nerve impulses mediate regulatory activities (Galen, Weber, Bernard.) (h) Specific sense qualities supply the information to which responses unfold (Muller). (i) Energy may be transformed to amplify the responses as well as to maintain norms (Lavoisier, Mayer). (j) Stability characterizes living systems as it does nonliving ones (Newton, Fechner).".
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