The Online Learning Center is designed to enhance your learning. Book-specific content such as quizzing, case studies, objectives, and web links can all be accessed by choosing from the list to the left. These materials are designed to help you succeed in your course.

From the authors

It seems incredible to us that the 10th edition of Human Physiology has arrived. More than 30 years ago we embarked on the first edition with the evangelistic feeling that there was then no other textbook that presented physiology to undergraduates in the way that we felt was appropriate. We wished to move beyond the listing of facts to stress the causal chains of events that constitute the mechanisms of body function. Despite the enormous amount of work required to update the book, and to improve the artwork and clarity of writing, we greatly enjoyed reviewing the newest work in physiology for the preparation of each subsequent edition. However, with the completion of the eighth edition we felt that it was time to end our efforts and turn the book over to a new team that would maintain its basic aims, approach, and quality. To our great satisfaction, McGraw-Hill launched an intensive search for such a team and we were delighted with the selection of Eric Widmaier, Hershel Raff, and Kevin Strang. We were also extremely pleased with their preparation of the ninth edition. We want to assure the many faculty who have chosen to use Human Physiology over the years that we are alive and well, and that the book is in good hands.

Arthur Vander, James Sherman, and Dorothy Luciano

The cover image for the 10th edition is a scanning electron micrograph of a kidney glomerulus, mag. 800x (at 24 by 36mm). The glomerulus is one of the structures of the nephron, the functional unit of the kidney. As blood passes through the glomerulus, water and metabolic wastes are filtered through the capillary walls by the surrounding podocytes.