Rytmika procesów fizjologicznych

Abstract

The course of biological phenomena analysed within the parameter of astronomical time has revealed striking variations in their intensity, variations characteristic both of the given species as a whole and of some of its physiological functions. Their determined periodical increase or decrease in intensity adds up to a certain established type of the animal’s behaviour, forming a frame for a phenomenon curicus to note in living matter, known as daily rhythm. The daily rhythm of physiological functions in a number of its components has been recognized for some time now, but usually was applied only to fragmentary functional events or events occuring upon a system's components or even upon fragments of substratum of the living matter. Their occurrence upon a more extensive platform of living substratum, or under the aspect of organic functional systems, as e.g., the enzymatic systems, has not been so far analysed at length in scientific publications, or, if there was such an analysis, it consisted of a mere registration of facts, in most cases with only a superficial - if any - commentary. In the article the author - apart from an exemplary presentation of a number of facts testifying to the daily rhythm of functional processes - has tried to describe in some detail their mechanism as well as to elucidate the reasons which bring about the quantitative oscillations in their daily manifestation. It would seem that certain cybernetical criteria, and particularly the contemporary information theory, could be of great use to explain and account for a great many obscure issues in this field of learning.