Essays on the History of Respiratory Physiology

Galen and the beginnings of Western physiology.- Ibn al-Nafis, the pulmonary circulation, and the Islamic Golden Age.- Torricelli and the ocean of air: the first measurement of barometric pressure.- Robert Boyle's landmark book of 1660 with the first experiments on rarified air.- The original presentation of Boyle's Law.- Robert Hooke: Early respiratory physiologist, polymath, and mechanical genius.- Marcello Malpighi and the discovery of the pulmonary capillaries and alveoli.- Stephen Hales: neglected respiratory physiologist.- Joseph Black, carbon dioxide, latent heat, and the beginnings of the discovery of the respiratory gases.- Carl Wilhelm Scheele, the discoverer of oxygen, and a very productive chemist.- Joseph Priestley, oxygen, and the Enlightenment.- The collaboration of Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier and the first measurements of human oxygen consumption.- Henry Cavendish, hydrogen, water, and the weight of the earth.- Humphry Davy, nitrous oxide, the Pneumatic Institution, and the Royal Institution.- Denis Jourdanet (1815-1892) and the early recognition of the role of hypoxia at high altitude.- Centenary of the Anglo-American High Altitude Expedition to Pikes Peak.- Alexander M. Kellas and the physiological challenge of Mount Everest.- Ravenhill and his contributions to mountain sickness.- George I. Finch and his pioneering use of oxygen for climbing at extreme altitudes.- Joseph Barcroft's studies of high altitude physiology.- The physiological legacy of the Fenn, Rahn and Otis school.- The physiological challenges of the 1952 Copenhagen poliomyelitis epidemic and a renaissance in clinical respiratory physiology.- Historical aspects of the early Soviet/Russian manned space program.