Book2013
Anatomy and Physiology
J. Gordon Betts et al.
A full college-level survey of how the body's systems work, built as an open textbook so that cost is never the reason a student cannot use it.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeEntry
Physiology
How bodies work as integrated systems — the cardiovascular, respiratory, renal and endocrine machinery that holds a state steady.
11 topics · 15 curated works
Topics
- 01Foundations & Overviews1
- 02Homeostasis2
- 03Cardiovascular Physiology1
- 04Respiratory Physiology1
- 05Renal Physiology2
- 06Endocrine Physiology1
- 07Digestive Physiology1
- 08Muscle Physiology2
- 09Thermoregulation1
- 10Comparative Physiology2
- 11Exercise Physiology1
Reading in Physiology
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Start here
No prior grounding assumed.
Anatomy and Physiology
J. Gordon Betts et al. · 2013
A full college-level survey of how the body's systems work, built as an open textbook so that cost is never the reason a student cannot use it.
Then
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
William Harvey · 1628
Argues from measured blood volume that the heart pumps the same blood around the body in a closed circuit, rather than the body continuously…
+6 more at this level
Go deeper
Primary sources and full treatments.
On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney
William Bowman · 1842
Uses microscopy to show that the kidney's capsule is a filtering structure directly connected to the blood supply, establishing the physical basis…
+6 more at this level
12 of 15 works
Book1628
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
William Harvey
Argues from measured blood volume that the heart pumps the same blood around the body in a closed circuit, rather than the body continuously manufacturing and consuming blood as the prevailing theory held.
about 5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1833
Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice and the Physiology of Digestion
William Beaumont
Uses a patient's permanent stomach fistula to directly observe and sample gastric juice during digestion, establishing that gastric secretion is a chemical process triggered by the presence of food rather than by food's mere mechanical bulk.
link failing as of 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1923
Muscular Exercise, Lactic Acid, and the Supply and Utilization of Oxygen
A. V. Hill & Hartley Lupton
Introduces the concept of maximal oxygen uptake and argues that once an athlete reaches it, effort beyond that point is fuelled anaerobically and paid for afterwards as an oxygen debt.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Lecture1929
The Progress of Physiology
August Krogh
Argues that for almost every physiological question there exists some animal on which it can be most conveniently studied, and that choosing the right organism matters as much as any technique.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Book1932
The Wisdom of the Body
Walter B. Cannon
Argues that the body's many self-correcting mechanisms — for temperature, blood sugar, blood pressure and more — are instances of one general regulatory principle, which Cannon names homeostasis.
PaidIntermediate
Book1975
Animal Physiology: Adaptation and Environment
Knut Schmidt-Nielsen
Compares how different animals solve the same physiological problems — water balance, temperature, oxygen supply — and treats the diversity of solutions as the actual subject of the field.
PaidIntermediate
Lecture2003
Aquaporin Water Channels
Peter Agre
Recounts the discovery of aquaporins, the membrane proteins that let the kidney's tubules move water rapidly and selectively, explaining a transport capacity that osmosis through the lipid membrane alone could not account for.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeIntermediate
Paper1842
On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the Kidney
William Bowman
Uses microscopy to show that the kidney's capsule is a filtering structure directly connected to the blood supply, establishing the physical basis for how urine begins to form.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Paper1905
The Regulation of the Lung-Ventilation
John S. Haldane & J. G. Priestley
Shows that breathing rate is controlled chiefly by the blood's carbon dioxide level rather than by lack of oxygen, identifying the actual variable the respiratory system defends.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Lecture1905
The Croonian Lectures on the Chemical Correlation of the Functions of the Body
Ernest H. Starling
Generalises beyond the single case of secretin to propose a whole class of chemical messengers, produced in one organ and carried by the blood to act on another, and gives this class the name hormone.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
Paper1929
Organization for Physiological Homeostasis
Walter B. Cannon
Sets out, before the book that popularised it, the criteria a bodily control system must meet to count as homeostatic — a stored reserve, a sensing mechanism, and a corrective response.
link checked 17 Sept 2026FreeAdvanced
In order written
1628 – 2013- 1628On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in AnimalsWilliam Harvey
- 1842On the Structure and Use of the Malpighian Bodies of the KidneyWilliam Bowman
- 1905The Regulation of the Lung-VentilationJohn S. Haldane & J. G. Priestley
- 1905The Croonian Lectures on the Chemical Correlation of the Functions of the BodyErnest H. Starling
- 1923Muscular Exercise, Lactic Acid, and the Supply and Utilization of OxygenA. V. Hill & Hartley Lupton
- 1929The Progress of PhysiologyAugust Krogh
- 1929Organization for Physiological HomeostasisWalter B. Cannon
- 1932The Wisdom of the BodyWalter B. Cannon
- 1954Changes in the Cross-Striations of Muscle during Contraction and Stretch and their Structural InterpretationHugh E. Huxley & Jean Hanson
- 1975Animal Physiology: Adaptation and EnvironmentKnut Schmidt-Nielsen
- 2003Aquaporin Water ChannelsPeter Agre
- 2004Brown Adipose Tissue: Function and Physiological SignificanceBarbara Cannon & Jan Nedergaard
- 2013Anatomy and PhysiologyJ. Gordon Betts et al.