Main description:

The centennial of his birthday (17 March 1881) prompted the publi cation of the Selected Works of Walter Rudolf Hess. Although English translation of several of his monographs have appeared, none of his orig inal papers has ever been published in the English language. During his sci entific career, Hess made pioneering contributions in the field of hemo dynamics, pyhsiological optics, oculomotor diagnostics, regulation of cir culation, respiration and temperature, and finally on the somatomotor, vis ceral, and emotional functions of the diencephalon. His concepts concern ing organization and order in physiology and his views on the important role of the vegetative nervous system in regulating the activity of the central ner vous system are of great interest to science and medicine and were in many respects far in advance of his time. These concepts continue a line of thought which was upheld by such famous physiologists as Xavier Bichat, Claude Bernard, and Walter B. Cannon. Indeed, Walter Rudolf Hess has become one of the rare figures in the recent history of physiology willing to carry out an integrative analysis of bodily functions and to search for the basic principles of regulation and interaction between regulatory systems. In fact, he anticipated such ideas in biology as feedback control and ser vomechanisms long before these notions evolved in the field of engineering and electronics.

Contents:

Section I Biological Order and Human Society Function and Neural Regulation of Internal Organs.- 1 Biological Order and Human Society.- 2 Function and Neural Regulation of Internal Organs.- Section II Hemodynamics, Physiological Optics, Neurohumoral Transmission.- 3 Blood Circulation and Finality.- 4 A New Examination Method for Diplopia.- 5 Direct Stereoscopic Photographs.- 6 The Effect of Acetylcholine on Skeletal Muscle.- Section III Vegetative Nervous System and Psychic Functions, Sleep, Hypothalamic Syndromes.- 7 The Reciprocal Relations Between Psychic and Vegetative Functions.- 8 Sleep.- 9 The Sleep Syndrome as Elicited by Diencephalic Stimulation.- 10 Hypothalamic Adynamia.- 11 The Subcortical Center of the Affective Defense Reaction (with M. Brugger).- Section IV Organization of Motor Systems.- 12 Critical Considerations on the Concept of a Nervous Center.- 13 Critique of the Hering-Breuer Theory of Self-regulation of Respiration.- 14 The Nature of the Movements Elicited by Electrical Stimulation of the Diencephalon.- 15 The Biomotor System as an Organization Problem.- 16 Teleokinetic and "Ereismatic" Mechanisms and Biomotor Functions.- 17 Motor Functions of Tectal and Tegmental Areas (with S. Burgi and V. Bucher).- Section V Biography and Bibliography.- 18 Biographical Data: Walter Rudolf Hess.- 19 From Medical Practice to Theoretical Medicine: An Autobiographic Sketch.- 20 Bibliography of Writings 1903-1973.