Annual Review of Physiology

Abstract

Among the subjects reviewed by leaders in their fields which are of most interest to physicians are reproduction, physiology of temperature, digestive system, peripheral circulation, heart, cutaneous sensibility, pituitary-adrenal system, memory, nervous system, nerve excitation and synaptic transmission, water and electrolyte metabolism, respiration, and regulation of blood volume. The degree of readability of these essays differs tremendously. Some are merely one sentence abstracts of a tremendous list of references, confirming a quotation by the author of one of the best reviews that "... its orderly classification requires computing machine technics rather than the mind..." Other articles provide brief reviews and summaries which are most helpful to the nonspecialist in the field, such as the chapter on neuroendocrine regulation of blood volume. Many titles are thoroughly inadequate at a time when titles are of increasing importance in indexes of the literature; the editor should have applied the usual requirement of a minimum