Human Physiology : Lectures

Abstract

These are the complete texts of the 48 lectures delivered by the author in Khazar University. They embrace the course of human (normal) physiology program in medical universities and medical faculties of universities. Before publishing these lectures the author had to decide the question: is there any necessity to publish them, whereas there are many physiology textbooks, including those in English? The answer was positive, and here are the arguments for it. To begin with, we have the foreign editions in limited quantities, insufficient to provide each student. Thanks to Khazar University, I had an opportunity to use the well-known over the world “Textbook of Medical Physiology” by A. C. Guyton. This book was repeatedly republished and has been translated into many languages. Formerly, all our Khazar University students – foreigners that read it, insisted on publishing my lectures. Because as fine and detailed a textbook as Guyton’s is, but they could not find in this book some problems of the physiology such as chronaxy, polar rule of excitation and dominant, the rules of transmission of excitation, etc. Instead, the book is overload by the problems of anatomy, histology, pathophysiology. The chapter “higher nervous activity” is completely absent. Evidently, it was considered as a part of psychology. But the higher nervous activity was first studied profoundly on the scientific basis just by physiologists and its principal problems, such as conditioned reflexes, temporary connections, internal inhibition, purposeful activity, signaling systems, etc. are purely physiological problems. They must be explained just in physiology textbooks. Taking into consideration that there is not a special textbook of physiological laboratory studies in English, description of experiments is given immediately after the text of corresponding lectures. The book is supplied with English-Azerbaijani-Russian dictionary of physiological terms compiled by the author. I am grateful to the founder and chancellor of Khazar University prof. Hamlet Isaxanli for the opportunity to deliver lectures in this university and publish the texts of my lectures.