This new book represents the first of a scheduled four-volume set, planned to deal with functions of the nervous system of man. The other volumes will deal with motor, sensory, and psychic functions.
The present book begins with a comprehensive review of the general physiology of nerve cells, fibers, and connections, with emphasis on electrical phenomena and transmitter substances, but the major portion of the volume then considers functions of the autonomic or visceral system. The prefatory definition of concepts and terms leads to the paradoxical division of the autonomic structures into a peripheral part (the outlying ganglionated trunks, postganglionic fibers, and effectors in smooth muscle and glandular cells) and a central part within the spinal cord and brain (ie, within the central nervous system).
Both the peripheral and the central parts of the autonomic system have been studied intensively in recent years, with pharmacologists concentrating especially on the trophotropic