Preface

As we originally concluded, the study of physiology goes hand-in-hand with consideration of anatomy at multiple levels. While the fundamental focus of this text is physiology, we have strived to include suffi­cient system, organ, tissue, and cellular anatomy for students to better appreciate the integration of both topics.

Moreover, we have made all of these illustrations available to instructors who adopt the book for use in their classes. We have also increased the use of textbox highlights to provide examples to compel student interest and inquiry. Chapter summaries and sample questions for both the student and instructor, as well as specific websites for each, will increase the utility of the text as well.

As before, our overriding goal with this edition is to provide foundations for undergraduate students in agricultural and biological sciences to be successful in upper-level specialty courses such as nutrition, repro­duction, lactation, growth biology, biotechnology, and the like. We also anticipate that this text will provide new graduate students with a readily understandable source for review of basic principles.

We would like to thank our wives (Cathy Akers, 43 years and counting; Dr. Cindy Denbow) for their love, support, and understanding through these long hours of figure making, writing, and editing. We would also like to thank our graduate students, colleagues, and students in our classes for the inspiration, a helping hand, and lots of questions. We would like to espe­cially thank Ms. Sara Robinson for preparing several drawings and Drs. Anthony Capuco, Steve Ellis, Frank Gwazdauskas, Ray Nebel, and Frank Robinson, and Mrs. Cathy Parsons for photographs used in the text.

R. Michael Akers D. Michael Denbmc