The physiology of respiration was developed by the studies of John Mayow (1643-1670), who proved that when blood is aerated, it changes appearance and that breathing is an exchange of gases. Oxygen was discovered in the eighteenth century by Joseph Priestly and Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Soon it was generally accepted that all animal life required oxygen.
Physiological research in the early nineteenth century continued to focus on anatomical structure to locate the site of biological processes and elucidate their nature.
William Harvey’s experiment proof of the circulation of the blood, founded physiology as a science and have it a method. The doctrine of the circulation is the fundamental conception of physiology.
By the time anatomy became essential to medical education, physiologists were well placed to profit; however, virtually all medical anatomy was done on cadavers.
Physiology a distinct utilizing chemical, physical and anatomical method began to develop in the 19th century. Claude Bernard in France; Johannes Muller in Germany; and Sir Michael Foster in England may be numbered among the founders of physiology as it now is known.
History of physiology
