The ribs from the first to the tenth have been cut across in the lateral line. The eleventh and twelfth ribs do not reach sufficiently far forwards to be cut. With the exception of a short segment near its junction with the ascending colon, the small intestine has been removed. The trachea is seen to divide into bronchi beneath the arch of the aorta. The right lung has three, the left two lobes. The kidneys are situate behind all the other viscera. On their upper ends rest the two suprarenal capsules. The lower edge of the right lobe of the liver follows closely the line of the ribs and costal cartilages. Below the left lobe of the liver the stomach comes to the anterior abdominal wall. The transverse colon (large intestine) comes to the anterior wall below the stomach. Below the latter the wall is in contact chiefly with coils of small intestine. The vermiform appendix rests on the posterior wall. Spleen and pancreas are not shown in the diagram.] THE BODY AT WORK CHAPTER I PROLEGOMENA Physiology is the science of the body at work. It is the study of life. Anatomy records how plants and animals are constructed. It maps and measures. Physiology ascertains what they do, endeavours to explain how they do it, and conjectures why. A knowledge of structure is essential to the right understanding of function; but the physiologist does not contemplate structure with a view to divining possibilities of action. He has no interest in structure as such. To him it is a matter of perfect indifference whether the tendon of a muscle is at its origin or its insertion. He would rather not know which end of the muscle terminates in a tendon. It is waste of his time to notice such a fact, save for the negative, the protective value of the information. If he did not know how the muscle and tendon are related, he might possibly imagine the muscle as doing something of which it is incapable. Observers of living things are often credited with studying structure with a view to determining function. The reverse is the true order of thought and observation. Living things perform certain acts. Having no inherent knowledge of our own microcosm which enables us to say how it works, we cannot, by reflecting upon our own internal operations, explain its various activities. Nor can we make use of the results of introspection when endeavouring to account for the acts of other beings. Our knowledge of how things are done is altogether extrapersonal, objective. It is the result of trial, failure, success in the use of apparatus, our own essays, or those of others. The body is a combination of organs—a term used somewhat loosely to designate any piece of the animal mechanism which has a distinct function to perform. The physiologist studies the results of the activity of an organ. He watches it in