Homeostasis. Origins of the concept

Abstract

In the eighteenth century man first began to measure the constancy of his internal environment despite broad variations in his external surroundings. This insightfully edited selection of twenty two landmark papers traces the evolution of the concept of homeostasis over the past 200 years. Beginning with Blagden's 1775 study on human temperature, 'Experiments and Observations in a Heated Room', the editor has reproduced and interpreted the original papers from England, France, Germany, Belgium, and the United States which have materially advanced man's understanding of homeostatic processes. Included are Claude Bernard's classic studies developing the theory of internal constancy, Walter Cannon's early twentieth century papers which both coined the word 'homeostasis' and laid the foundations for modern understanding of the theory, and fully contemporary papers which illustrate the importance of homeostasis to the study of physiology today. Several of these articles appear in English for the first time. Many others are difficult to obtain elsewhere. This unique volume is the first to gather together the publications that established homeostasis as a solid biological principle.