The history of physiology can be traced back at least as far as Greek natural philosophy. The study of anatomy, traced in
history of anatomy reveals some of the early history of human physiology, as the study of human anatomy revealed functions as well.
In the eighth century C.E., it was
Abu Bakr Al Razi(popularly known as Rhazes), a Persian physician and philosopher who
described certain physiological parameters when he went to establish a
hospital at
Baghdad. Razi was followed by Al Kindi, who wrote a treatise on human physiology.
Anatomist William Harvey described blood circulation in the seventeenth century, providing the beginning of experimental physiology.
Herman Boerhaave is sometimes referred to as the father of physiology due to his exemplary teaching in Leiden and his textbook
Institutiones medicae (1708).
In the
United States, the first physiology professorship was founded in 1789 at the College of
Philadelphia, and in 1832, Robert Dunglison published the first comprehensive work on the subject,
Human Physiology (Encyclopedia of American History, 2007). In 1833, William Beaumont published a classic work on digestive function.
Among areas that have show significant growth in the twentieth century are endocrinology (study of function of
hormones) and neurobiology (study of function of
nerve cells and the
nervous system).
Calendar