Human Physiology: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Davies, J. A. (2021). Human Physiology: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The book is number 678 in Oxford's Very Short Introductions series, a pocket-sized paperback of about 160 pages in nine chapters, followed by further reading and an index. Its author is Professor of Experimental Anatomy at the University of Edinburgh and has also written the series' volume on synthetic biology. The structure follows the body's main tasks rather than its organs: obtaining and using energy, keeping the internal environment stable, gathering information, deciding, acting, defending itself and reproducing. The publisher adds that the book discusses the experiments and research methods through which physiology is known, analyses the ethical issues involved, traces the development of the field, and shows how physiological knowledge informs medical research and care.

Chapter 1: Human physiology: what it is and how it is done

The opening chapter defines the subject, which the publisher describes as the science of how living things work and what distinguishes them from the non-living, and introduces how physiological knowledge is obtained. This is where the book's attention to experimental method, and to the ethics of research, is first set out.

Chapter 2: Energy: food, oxygen, blood, heat, waste

The title lists the ground covered: the intake of food and oxygen, their distribution by the blood, the production of heat, and the removal of waste. The title suggests that this one chapter brings together material that a systematic textbook would divide among the digestive, respiratory, cardiovascular and excretory systems.

Chapter 3: Homeostasis: the stability of the internal environment

The chapter is devoted to homeostasis, the keeping of the body's internal parameters stable, which the publisher names as one of the book's main themes.

Chapters 4–6: Sensation; Reacting and thinking; From thought to action

Three consecutive chapters follow information through the body: how it is gathered by the senses, how the body reacts and thinks, and how decisions become action. The sequence mirrors the publisher's description of the ways we gather and process information and the ways we take action.

Chapter 7: Defence

A chapter on how the body defends itself.

Chapter 8: Reproduction

The creation of new generations, the last of the body's tasks in the publisher's list.

Chapter 9: Concluding remarks

A short closing chapter, followed by suggestions for further reading.

Key Concepts

Chapter 1: What physiology is

• Physiology: the science of how living things work and what makes them different from non-living matter.
• Experimental method: physiological knowledge comes from experiments and research, whose ethics the book discusses.

Chapters 2–3: Energy and stability

• Energy supply: food and oxygen are taken in and distributed by the blood, with heat and waste as by-products to be managed.
• Homeostasis: the stability of the internal environment, maintained despite changing conditions.

Chapters 4–6: Information and action

• Sensation: the gathering of information about the world and the body.
• Reacting and thinking: processing that information.
• From thought to action: turning decisions into movement and behaviour.

Chapters 7–8: Defence and reproduction

• Defence: the body's protection of itself.
• Reproduction: the creation of a new generation.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Organised by function, not by organ. The chapter titles name tasks (energy, stability, sensing, thinking, acting, defending, reproducing) rather than organ systems. For a beginner this shows why the systems exist and how they cooperate, which a system-by-system textbook can obscure.
• Physiology as a science, not just a set of facts. The opening chapter on how physiology is done, and the publisher's emphasis on experiments, research methods, ethics and the history of the field, give the reader a sense of how the knowledge was obtained.
• Written by a research scientist. According to the publisher, the author has published over 200 research papers on the cellular mechanisms that create and maintain the bodies of humans and higher animals, as well as an earlier volume in the same series.
• Genuinely short. About 160 small pages can be read in a few sittings, before a course begins or alongside its first weeks.

Limitations

• Not a course text. Nine short chapters cannot cover the quantitative detail, organ-system mechanisms or clinical content that a medical or biomedical physiology course examines; there are no exercises or review questions in the contents.
• Systems are merged. Because Chapter 2 gathers several organ systems under one theme, students looking for, say, renal physiology on its own will not find a dedicated chapter.
• Breadth in a small space. Topics as large as the senses, thinking and movement share three short chapters, so each can only be introduced; the book is background for a course rather than preparation for its examinations.

Where It Fits in the Course

In this physiology course the book is the gentlest entry point and the only one written for general readers. It is best read before or at the very start of a course, to give a framework of the body's main tasks. Physiology at a Glance is the natural next step: still short, but organised as a systematic course of 63 two-page topics from cells to organ systems, with diagrams and normal values. Costanzo's Costanzo Physiology is a full single-author textbook for medical and health-science courses, with equations, sample problems and clinical cases; Ganong's Review of Medical Physiology is a denser review that assumes some biochemistry and stresses the experimental basis of the subject; and the Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology is a comprehensive systems-based account built around homeostasis.

Davies's book connects most closely with those texts in two places: its homeostasis chapter introduces the theme that organises Guyton and Hall and the opening chapter of Physiology at a Glance, and its interest in how physiology is discovered prepares readers for Ganong's emphasis on experiment.

How to Use This Book

The book assumes nothing beyond school-level biology. It suits prospective and first-year students of medicine, biomedical science, nursing and allied health, students in other subjects who want to understand how the body works, and anyone who wants the big picture before a detailed course.

A practical plan:

• Read it straight through, early. At this length the book is meant to be read in order; Chapters 1–3 set out the method and the central idea of homeostasis, and the later chapters apply the same task-based view to information, action, defence and reproduction.
• Build a map. While reading, sketch which organ systems contribute to each chapter's task, for example which systems Chapter 2 draws together. That map becomes the scaffold for a systematic textbook.
• Move on to a course text. After finishing, start a systematic book such as Physiology at a Glance or Costanzo Physiology, and return to Davies's homeostasis and energy chapters when the detail of individual systems makes the overall picture hard to see.
• Use the further reading. The book's list of further reading is the place to go for any topic that catches interest.
• Optional rereading: Chapter 1 and the concluding remarks are worth revisiting before writing an essay on the nature of physiology or on the ethics of experimentation.