Physiology : (noun)
1: the branch of the biological sciences dealing with the
functioning of organisms
2: processes and functions of an organism
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Physiology : \Phys`i*ol"o*gy\, n.; pl. Physiologies. [L.
physiologia, Gr. ?; fy`sis nature _ ? discourse: cf. F.
physiologie.]
1. The science which treats of the phenomena of living
organisms; the study of the processes incidental to, and
characteristic of, life.
Note: It is divided into animal and vegetable physiology,
dealing with animal and vegetable life respectively.
When applied especially to a study of the functions of
the organs and tissues in man, it is called human
physiology.
2. A treatise on physiology.
Mental physiology, the science of the functions and
phenomena of the mind, as distinguished from a
philosophical explanation of the same.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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PHYSIOLOGY, med. jur. The science which treats of the functions of animals;
it is the science of life.
2. The legal practitioner who expects to rise to eminence, must acquire
some acquaintance with physiology. This subject is intimately connected with
gestation, birth, life and death. Vide 2 Chit. Pr. 42, n.
Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:
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Physiology : Physiology: The study of how living organisms function including such processes as nutrition, movement, and reproduction.
The word "function" is important to the definition of physiology because physiology traditionally had to do with the function of living things while anatomy had to do with morphology, the shape and
form, of things.
Human physiology today is a science of wide scope: - Some physiological studies are concerned with processes that go on within cells such as phagocytosis, the process by which cells engulf and
usually digest particles, bacteria and other microorganisms, and even harmful cells. The physiology of cells is called cell physiology.
- Other physiological studies deal with how tissues and
organs work, how they are controlled and interact with other tissues and organs and how they are integrated within the individual.
- Yet other physiological studies deal with how we respond to
our environment. For example, to extremes of temperature (in arctic conditions versus the desert), to changes in pressure (deep under the ocean versus weightless in space), etc.
Human physiological processes are the functions of living persons and their parts, and the physical and chemical factors and processes involved.
In 1901 when the Nobel Prizes were established, one was the "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine". Ivan Pavlov (Russia, psychology, and physiology, 1904), Frederick Banting and John Macleod
(Canada, discovery of insulin , 1923), Hermann J. Muller (U.S., mutations by radiation, 1946), Francis Crick, James Watson & Maurice Wilkins (U.K. & U.S., the DNA double helix, 1962),
Barbara McClintock (U.S., jumping genes, 1983) and Joseph Murray & Donnall Thomas (U.S., kidney & bone marrow transplantation, 1990) have been among the many celebrated recipients of the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Based on Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [Bouvier_Law_Dictionary]:
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