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Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology
13rd Edition
By John E. Hall, PhD, Arthur C. Guyton Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology and Biophysics,
Director, Mississippi Center for Obesity Research, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson,
Mississippi
UNIT I
and Control of the “Internal Environment”
Physiology is the science that seeks to explain the physical required for all cells to function. Further, the general
and chemical mechanisms that are responsible for the chemical mechanisms for changing nutrients into energy
origin, development, and progression of life. Each type of are basically the same in all cells, and all cells deliver
life, from the simplest virus to the largest tree or the products of their chemical reactions into the surrounding
complicated human being, has its own functional charac- fluids.
teristics. Therefore, the vast field of physiology can be Almost all cells also have the ability to reproduce addi-
divided into viral physiology, bacterial physiology, cellular tional cells of their own kind. Fortunately, when cells of
physiology, plant physiology, invertebrate physiology, ver- a particular type are destroyed, the remaining cells of
tebrate physiology, mammalian physiology, human physi- this type usually generate new cells until the supply is
ology, and many more subdivisions. replenished.
3
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
other cellular waste products that are being transported of the disease from the compensatory responses. For
to the kidneys for excretion. example, diseases that impair the kidneys’ ability to
The intracellular fluid differs significantly from the excrete salt and water may lead to high blood pressure,
extracellular fluid; for example, it contains large amounts which initially helps return excretion to normal so that a
of potassium, magnesium, and phosphate ions instead balance between intake and renal excretion can be main-
of the sodium and chloride ions found in the extracel- tained. This balance is needed to maintain life, but over
lular fluid. Special mechanisms for transporting ions long periods of time the high blood pressure can damage
through the cell membranes maintain the ion concentra- various organs, including the kidneys, causing even
tion differences between the extracellular and intracellu- greater increases in blood pressure and more renal
lar fluids. These transport processes are discussed in damage. Thus, homeostatic compensations that ensue
Chapter 4. after injury, disease, or major environmental challenges
to the body may represent a “trade-off ” that is necessary
to maintain vital body functions but may, in the long
HOMEOSTASIS—MAINTENANCE
term, contribute to additional abnormalities of body
OF A NEARLY CONSTANT
function. The discipline of pathophysiology seeks to
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
explain how the various physiological processes are
In 1929 the American physiologist Walter Cannon altered in diseases or injury.
(1871–1945) coined the term homeostasis to describe This chapter outlines the different functional systems
the maintenance of nearly constant conditions in the inter- of the body and their contributions to homeostasis; we
nal environment. Essentially all organs and tissues of the then briefly discuss the basic theory of the body’s control
body perform functions that help maintain these rela- systems that allow the functional systems to operate in
tively constant conditions. For instance, the lungs provide support of one another.
oxygen to the extracellular fluid to replenish the oxygen
used by the cells, the kidneys maintain constant ion
EXTRACELLULAR FLUID TRANSPORT
concentrations, and the gastrointestinal system provides
AND MIXING SYSTEM—THE BLOOD
nutrients.
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
The various ions, nutrients, waste products, and other
constituents of the body are normally regulated within a Extracellular fluid is transported through the body in two
range of values, rather than at fixed values. For some stages. The first stage is movement of blood through the
of the body’s constituents, this range is extremely small. body in the blood vessels, and the second is movement of
Variations in blood hydrogen ion concentration, for fluid between the blood capillaries and the intercellular
example, are normally less than 5 nanomoles per liter spaces between the tissue cells.
(0.000000005 moles per liter). Blood sodium concentra- Figure 1-1 shows the overall circulation of blood. All
tion is also tightly regulated, normally varying only a few the blood in the circulation traverses the entire circula-
millimoles per liter even with large changes in sodium tory circuit an average of once each minute when the
intake, but these variations of sodium concentration are body is at rest and as many as six times each minute when
at least 1 million times greater than for hydrogen ions. a person is extremely active.
Powerful control systems exist for maintaining the As blood passes through the blood capillaries, con-
concentrations of sodium and hydrogen ions, as well as tinual exchange of extracellular fluid also occurs between
for most of the other ions, nutrients, and substances the plasma portion of the blood and the interstitial
in the body at levels that permit the cells, tissues, and fluid that fills the intercellular spaces. This process is
organs to perform their normal functions despite wide shown in Figure 1-2. The walls of the capillaries are
environmental variations and challenges from injury and permeable to most molecules in the plasma of the blood,
diseases. with the exception of plasma proteins, which are too large
A large segment of this text is concerned with how to readily pass through the capillaries. Therefore, large
each organ or tissue contributes to homeostasis. Normal amounts of fluid and its dissolved constituents diffuse
body functions require the integrated actions of cells, back and forth between the blood and the tissue spaces,
tissues, organs, and the multiple nervous, hormonal, and as shown by the arrows. This process of diffusion is caused
local control systems that together contribute to homeo- by kinetic motion of the molecules in both the plasma and
stasis and good health. the interstitial fluid. That is, the fluid and dissolved mol-
Disease is often considered to be a state of disrupted ecules are continually moving and bouncing in all direc-
homeostasis. However, even in the presence of disease, tions within the plasma and the fluid in the intercellular
homeostatic mechanisms continue to operate and main- spaces, as well as through the capillary pores. Few cells
tain vital functions through multiple compensations. In are located more than 50 micrometers from a capillary,
some cases, these compensations may themselves lead to which ensures diffusion of almost any substance from the
major deviations of the body’s functions from the normal capillary to the cell within a few seconds. Thus, the extra-
range, making it difficult to distinguish the primary cause cellular fluid everywhere in the body—both that of the
4
Chapter I Functional Organization of the Human Body and Control of the “Internal Environment”
Lungs Arteriole
UNIT I
CO2 O2
Right Left
heart heart
pump pump
Venule
Gut
5
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
besides carbon dioxide that are not needed by the cells. and protein metabolism; and parathyroid hormone con-
These substances include different end products of cel- trols bone calcium and phosphate. Thus the hormones
lular metabolism, such as urea and uric acid; they also provide a system for regulation that complements the
include excesses of ions and water from the food that nervous system. The nervous system regulates many mus-
might have accumulated in the extracellular fluid. cular and secretory activities of the body, whereas the
The kidneys perform their function by first filtering hormonal system regulates many metabolic functions.
large quantities of plasma through the glomerular capil- The nervous and hormonal systems normally work
laries into the tubules and then reabsorbing into the blood together in a coordinated manner to control essentially
the substances needed by the body, such as glucose, all of the organ systems of the body.
amino acids, appropriate amounts of water, and many of
the ions. Most of the other substances that are not needed
PROTECTION OF THE BODY
by the body, especially metabolic waste products such as
urea, are reabsorbed poorly and pass through the renal Immune System. The immune system consists of the
tubules into the urine. white blood cells, tissue cells derived from white blood
cells, the thymus, lymph nodes, and lymph vessels that
Gastrointestinal Tract. Undigested material that enters protect the body from pathogens such as bacteria, viruses,
the gastrointestinal tract and some waste products of parasites, and fungi. The immune system provides a
metabolism are eliminated in the feces. mechanism for the body to (1) distinguish its own cells
from foreign cells and substances and (2) destroy the
Liver. Among the functions of the liver is the detoxifica- invader by phagocytosis or by producing sensitized lym-
tion or removal of many drugs and chemicals that are phocytes or specialized proteins (e.g., antibodies) that
ingested. The liver secretes many of these wastes into the either destroy or neutralize the invader.
bile to be eventually eliminated in the feces.
Integumentary System. The skin and its various
appendages (including the hair, nails, glands, and other
REGULATION OF BODY FUNCTIONS
structures) cover, cushion, and protect the deeper tissues
Nervous System. The nervous system is composed of and organs of the body and generally provide a boundary
three major parts: the sensory input portion, the central between the body’s internal environment and the outside
nervous system (or integrative portion), and the motor world. The integumentary system is also important for
output portion. Sensory receptors detect the state of the temperature regulation and excretion of wastes, and it
body or the state of the surroundings. For instance, recep- provides a sensory interface between the body and the
tors in the skin alert us whenever an object touches the external environment. The skin generally comprises about
skin at any point. The eyes are sensory organs that give 12 to 15 percent of body weight.
us a visual image of the surrounding area. The ears are
also sensory organs. The central nervous system is com-
REPRODUCTION
posed of the brain and spinal cord. The brain can store
information, generate thoughts, create ambition, and Sometimes reproduction is not considered a homeostatic
determine reactions that the body performs in response function. It does, however, help maintain homeostasis by
to the sensations. Appropriate signals are then transmit- generating new beings to take the place of those that are
ted through the motor output portion of the nervous dying. This may sound like a permissive usage of the term
system to carry out one’s desires. homeostasis, but it illustrates that, in the final analysis,
An important segment of the nervous system is called essentially all body structures are organized such that
the autonomic system. It operates at a subconscious level they help maintain the automaticity and continuity of life.
and controls many functions of the internal organs,
including the level of pumping activity by the heart,
CONTROL SYSTEMS OF THE BODY
movements of the gastrointestinal tract, and secretion by
many of the body’s glands. The human body has thousands of control systems. Some
of the most intricate of these systems are the genetic
Hormone Systems. Located in the body are eight major control systems that operate in all cells to help control
endocrine glands and several organs and tissues that intracellular and extracellular functions. This subject is
secrete chemical substances called hormones. Hormones discussed in Chapter 3.
are transported in the extracellular fluid to other parts of Many other control systems operate within the organs
the body to help regulate cellular function. For instance, to control functions of the individual parts of the organs;
thyroid hormone increases the rates of most chemical others operate throughout the entire body to control the
reactions in all cells, thus helping to set the tempo of interrelations between the organs. For instance, the respi-
bodily activity. Insulin controls glucose metabolism; adre- ratory system, operating in association with the nervous
nocortical hormones control sodium and potassium ions system, regulates the concentration of carbon dioxide in
6
Chapter I Functional Organization of the Human Body and Control of the “Internal Environment”
the extracellular fluid. The liver and pancreas regulate the Reference
concentration of glucose in the extracellular fluid, and the set point
kidneys regulate concentrations of hydrogen, sodium, Error signal Effectors
potassium, phosphate, and other ions in the extracellular Brain medulla
fluid. Sympathetic Blood vessels
Vasomotor
nervous system Heart
centers
UNIT I
EXAMPLES OF CONTROL MECHANISMS Feedback signal
Regulation of Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide Concen
trations in the Extracellular Fluid. Because oxygen is Baroreceptors Arterial
one of the major substances required for chemical reac- pressure
tions in the cells, the body has a special control mecha- Sensor Controlled variable
nism to maintain an almost exact and constant oxygen Figure 1-3. Negative feedback control of arterial pressure by the
concentration in the extracellular fluid. This mechanism arterial baroreceptors. Signals from the sensor (baroreceptors) are
depends principally on the chemical characteristics of sent to medulla of the brain, where they are compared with a refer-
hemoglobin, which is present in all red blood cells. ence set point. When arterial pressure increases above normal, this
abnormal pressure increases nerve impulses from the baroreceptors
Hemoglobin combines with oxygen as the blood passes
to the medulla of the brain, where the input signals are compared
through the lungs. Then, as the blood passes through the with the set point, generating an error signal that leads to decreased
tissue capillaries, hemoglobin, because of its own strong sympathetic nervous system activity. Decreased sympathetic activity
chemical affinity for oxygen, does not release oxygen into causes dilation of blood vessels and reduced pumping activity of the
the tissue fluid if too much oxygen is already there. heart, which return arterial pressure toward normal.
However, if the oxygen concentration in the tissue fluid is
too low, sufficient oxygen is released to re-establish an
adequate concentration. Thus regulation of oxygen con- of these effects decrease the arterial pressure, moving it
centration in the tissues is vested principally in the chemi- back toward normal.
cal characteristics of hemoglobin. This regulation is called Conversely, a decrease in arterial pressure below
the oxygen-buffering function of hemoglobin. normal relaxes the stretch receptors, allowing the vaso-
Carbon dioxide concentration in the extracellular fluid motor center to become more active than usual, thereby
is regulated in a much different way. Carbon dioxide is a causing vasoconstriction and increased heart pumping.
major end product of the oxidative reactions in cells. If all The decrease in arterial pressure also raises arterial pres-
the carbon dioxide formed in the cells continued to accu- sure, moving it back toward normal.
mulate in the tissue fluids, all energy-giving reactions of
the cells would cease. Fortunately, a higher than normal Normal Ranges and Physical
carbon dioxide concentration in the blood excites the Characteristics of Important Extracellular
respiratory center, causing a person to breathe rapidly and Fluid Constituents
deeply. This deep, rapid breathing increases expiration of Table 1-1 lists some of the important constituents
carbon dioxide and, therefore, removes excess carbon and physical characteristics of extracellular fluid, along
dioxide from the blood and tissue fluids. This process with their normal values, normal ranges, and maximum
continues until the concentration returns to normal. limits without causing death. Note the narrowness of the
normal range for each one. Values outside these ranges
Regulation of Arterial Blood Pressure. Several systems are often caused by illness, injury, or major environmental
contribute to the regulation of arterial blood pressure. challenges.
One of these, the baroreceptor system, is a simple and Most important are the limits beyond which abnor-
excellent example of a rapidly acting control mechanism malities can cause death. For example, an increase in the
(Figure 1-3). In the walls of the bifurcation region of the body temperature of only 11°F (7°C) above normal can
carotid arteries in the neck, and also in the arch of the lead to a vicious cycle of increasing cellular metabolism
aorta in the thorax, are many nerve receptors called baro- that destroys the cells. Note also the narrow range for
receptors that are stimulated by stretch of the arterial wall. acid-base balance in the body, with a normal pH value
When the arterial pressure rises too high, the barorecep- of 7.4 and lethal values only about 0.5 on either side of
tors send barrages of nerve impulses to the medulla of the normal. Another important factor is the potassium ion
brain. Here these impulses inhibit the vasomotor center, concentration because whenever it decreases to less than
which in turn decreases the number of impulses transmit- one-third normal, a person is likely to be paralyzed as a
ted from the vasomotor center through the sympathetic result of the inability of the nerves to carry signals.
nervous system to the heart and blood vessels. Lack of Alternatively, if potassium ion concentration increases to
these impulses causes diminished pumping activity by the two or more times normal, the heart muscle is likely to
heart and also dilation of the peripheral blood vessels, be severely depressed. Also, when calcium ion concentra-
allowing increased blood flow through the vessels. Both tion falls below about one-half normal, a person is likely
7
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
to experience tetanic contraction of muscles throughout instances, these effects are negative with respect to the
the body because of the spontaneous generation of excess initiating stimulus.
nerve impulses in the peripheral nerves. When glucose Therefore, in general, if some factor becomes excessive
concentration falls below one-half normal, a person fre- or deficient, a control system initiates negative feedback,
quently exhibits extreme mental irritability and some- which consists of a series of changes that return the
times even has convulsions. factor toward a certain mean value, thus maintaining
These examples should give one an appreciation for homeostasis.
the extreme value and even the necessity of the vast
numbers of control systems that keep the body operating Gain of a Control System. The degree of effectiveness
in health; in the absence of any one of these controls, with which a control system maintains constant condi-
serious body malfunction or death can result. tions is determined by the gain of the negative feedback.
For instance, let us assume that a large volume of blood
is transfused into a person whose baroreceptor pressure
CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTROL SYSTEMS
control system is not functioning, and the arterial pres-
The aforementioned examples of homeostatic control sure rises from the normal level of 100 mm Hg up to
mechanisms are only a few of the many thousands in the 175 mm Hg. Then, let us assume that the same volume of
body, all of which have certain characteristics in common blood is injected into the same person when the barore-
as explained in this section. ceptor system is functioning, and this time the pressure
increases only 25 mm Hg. Thus the feedback control
Negative Feedback Nature of Most system has caused a “correction” of −50 mm Hg—that is,
Control Systems from 175 mm Hg to 125 mm Hg. There remains an
Most control systems of the body act by negative feed- increase in pressure of +25 mm Hg, called the “error,”
back, which can best be explained by reviewing some of which means that the control system is not 100 percent
the homeostatic control systems mentioned previously. effective in preventing change. The gain of the system is
In the regulation of carbon dioxide concentration, a high then calculated by using the following formula:
concentration of carbon dioxide in the extracellular
Correction
fluid increases pulmonary ventilation. This, in turn, de- Gain =
Error
creases the extracellular fluid carbon dioxide concentra-
tion because the lungs expire greater amounts of carbon Thus, in the baroreceptor system example, the correc-
dioxide from the body. In other words, the high concen- tion is −50 mm Hg and the error persisting is +25 mm Hg.
tration of carbon dioxide initiates events that decrease Therefore, the gain of the person’s baroreceptor system
the concentration toward normal, which is negative to the for control of arterial pressure is −50 divided by +25, or
initiating stimulus. Conversely, a carbon dioxide concen- −2. That is, a disturbance that increases or decreases the
tration that falls too low results in feedback to increase arterial pressure does so only one third as much as would
the concentration. This response is also negative to the occur if this control system were not present.
initiating stimulus. The gains of some other physiologic control systems
In the arterial pressure–regulating mechanisms, a are much greater than that of the baroreceptor system.
high pressure causes a series of reactions that promote For instance, the gain of the system controlling internal
a lowered pressure, or a low pressure causes a series body temperature when a person is exposed to moder-
of reactions that promote an elevated pressure. In both ately cold weather is about −33. Therefore, one can see
8
Chapter I Functional Organization of the Human Body and Control of the “Internal Environment”
UNIT I
enzymes act on other unactivated enzymes of the imme-
Bled 2 liters diately adjacent blood, thus causing more blood clotting.
2
This process continues until the hole in the vessel is
plugged and bleeding no longer occurs. On occasion, this
1 mechanism can get out of hand and cause formation of
unwanted clots. In fact, this is what initiates most acute
Death heart attacks, which can be caused by a clot beginning on
0
the inside surface of an atherosclerotic plaque in a coro-
1 2 3
nary artery and then growing until the artery is blocked.
Hours
Childbirth is another instance in which positive feed-
Figure 1-4. Recovery of heart pumping caused by negative feedback
back is valuable. When uterine contractions become
after 1 liter of blood is removed from the circulation. Death is caused
by positive feedback when 2 liters of blood are removed. strong enough for the baby’s head to begin pushing
through the cervix, stretching of the cervix sends signals
through the uterine muscle back to the body of the uterus,
that the temperature control system is much more effec- causing even more powerful contractions. Thus the
tive than the baroreceptor pressure control system. uterine contractions stretch the cervix and the cervical
stretch causes stronger contractions. When this process
Positive Feedback Can Sometimes Cause becomes powerful enough, the baby is born. If it is not
Vicious Cycles and Death powerful enough, the contractions usually die out and a
Why do most control systems of the body operate by few days pass before they begin again.
negative feedback rather than positive feedback? If one Another important use of positive feedback is for the
considers the nature of positive feedback, it is obvious generation of nerve signals. That is, stimulation of the
that positive feedback leads to instability rather than sta- membrane of a nerve fiber causes slight leakage of sodium
bility and, in some cases, can cause death. ions through sodium channels in the nerve membrane to
Figure 1-4 shows an example in which death can the fiber’s interior. The sodium ions entering the fiber
ensue from positive feedback. This figure depicts the then change the membrane potential, which in turn
pumping effectiveness of the heart, showing that the causes more opening of channels, more change of poten-
heart of a healthy human being pumps about 5 liters of tial, still more opening of channels, and so forth. Thus, a
blood per minute. If the person is suddenly bled 2 liters, slight leak becomes an explosion of sodium entering the
the amount of blood in the body is decreased to such a interior of the nerve fiber, which creates the nerve action
low level that not enough blood is available for the heart potential. This action potential in turn causes electrical
to pump effectively. As a result, the arterial pressure current to flow along both the outside and the inside of
falls and the flow of blood to the heart muscle through the fiber and initiates additional action potentials. This
the coronary vessels diminishes. This scenario results process continues again and again until the nerve signal
in weakening of the heart, further diminished pumping, goes all the way to the end of the fiber.
a further decrease in coronary blood flow, and still more In each case in which positive feedback is useful, the
weakness of the heart; the cycle repeats itself again and positive feedback is part of an overall negative feedback
again until death occurs. Note that each cycle in the feed- process. For example, in the case of blood clotting, the
back results in further weakening of the heart. In other positive feedback clotting process is a negative feedback
words, the initiating stimulus causes more of the same, process for maintenance of normal blood volume. Also,
which is positive feedback. the positive feedback that causes nerve signals allows the
Positive feedback is better known as a “vicious cycle,” nerves to participate in thousands of negative feedback
but a mild degree of positive feedback can be overcome nervous control systems.
by the negative feedback control mechanisms of the body,
and the vicious cycle then fails to develop. For instance, More Complex Types of Control
if the person in the aforementioned example is bled only Systems—Adaptive Control
1 liter instead of 2 liters, the normal negative feedback Later in this text, when we study the nervous system, we
mechanisms for controlling cardiac output and arterial shall see that this system contains great numbers of inter-
pressure can counterbalance the positive feedback and connected control mechanisms. Some are simple feed-
the person can recover, as shown by the dashed curve of back systems similar to those already discussed. Many are
Figure 1-4. not. For instance, some movements of the body occur so
9
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
rapidly that there is not enough time for nerve signals to more functional systems lose their ability to contribute
travel from the peripheral parts of the body all the way to their share of function. When this happens, all the cells
the brain and then back to the periphery again to control of the body suffer. Extreme dysfunction leads to death;
the movement. Therefore, the brain uses a principle called moderate dysfunction leads to sickness.
feed-forward control to cause required muscle contrac-
tions. That is, sensory nerve signals from the moving
parts apprise the brain whether the movement is per- Bibliography
formed correctly. If not, the brain corrects the feed- Adolph EF: Physiological adaptations: hypertrophies and superfunc-
tions. Am Sci 60:608, 1972.
forward signals that it sends to the muscles the next time
Bernard C: Lectures on the Phenomena of Life Common to Animals
the movement is required. Then, if still further correction and Plants. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, 1974.
is necessary, this process will be performed again for sub- Cannon WB: Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol Rev
sequent movements. This process is called adaptive 9(3):399, 1929.
control. Adaptive control, in a sense, is delayed negative Chien S: Mechanotransduction and endothelial cell homeostasis: the
wisdom of the cell. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 292:H1209,
feedback.
2007.
Thus, one can see how complex the feedback control Csete ME, Doyle JC: Reverse engineering of biological complexity.
systems of the body can be. A person’s life depends on all Science 295:1664, 2002.
of them. Therefore, a major share of this text is devoted DiBona GF: Physiology in perspective: the wisdom of the body. Neural
to discussing these life-giving mechanisms. control of the kidney. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol.
289:R633, 2005.
Dickinson MH, Farley CT, Full RJ, et al: How animals move: an integra-
SUMMARY—AUTOMATICITY tive view. Science 288:100, 2000.
Eckel-Mahan K, Sassone-Corsi P: Metabolism and the circadian clock
OF THE BODY
converge. Physiol Rev 93:107, 2013.
The purpose of this chapter has been to point out, first, Gao Q, Horvath TL: Neuronal control of energy homeostasis. FEBS
Lett 582:132, 2008.
the overall organization of the body and, second, the
Guyton AC: Arterial Pressure and Hypertension. Philadelphia: WB
means by which the different parts of the body operate in Saunders, 1980.
harmony. To summarize, the body is actually a social Herman MA, Kahn BB: Glucose transport and sensing in the main-
order of about 100 trillion cells organized into different tenance of glucose homeostasis and metabolic harmony. J Clin
functional structures, some of which are called organs. Invest 116:1767, 2006.
Krahe R, Gabbiani F: Burst firing in sensory systems. Nat Rev Neurosci
Each functional structure contributes its share to the
5:13, 2004.
maintenance of homeostatic conditions in the extracel- Orgel LE: The origin of life on the earth. Sci Am 271:76,1994.
lular fluid, which is called the internal environment. As Sekirov I, Russell SL, Antunes LC, Finlay BB: Gut microbiota in health
long as normal conditions are maintained in this internal and disease. Physiol Rev 90:859, 2010.
environment, the cells of the body continue to live and Smith HW: From Fish to Philosopher. New York: Doubleday, 1961.
function properly. Each cell benefits from homeostasis, Srinivasan MV: Honeybees as a model for the study of visually guided
flight, navigation, and biologically inspired robotics. Physiol Rev
and in turn, each cell contributes its share toward the 91:413, 2011.
maintenance of homeostasis. This reciprocal interplay Tjian R: Molecular machines that control genes. Sci Am 272:54,
provides continuous automaticity of the body until one or 1995.
10
CHAPTER 2
UNIT I
The Cell and Its Functions
Each of the 100 trillion cells in a human being is a living the cell membrane are required for transmission of elec-
structure that can survive for months or years, provided trochemical impulses in nerve and muscle fibers.
its surrounding fluids contain appropriate nutrients. Cells
are the building blocks of the body, providing structure Proteins. After water, the most abundant substances
for the body’s tissues and organs, ingesting nutrients and in most cells are proteins, which normally constitute 10
converting them to energy, and performing specialized to 20 percent of the cell mass. These proteins can be
functions. Cells also contain the body’s hereditary code divided into two types: structural proteins and functional
that controls the substances synthesized by the cells and proteins.
permits them to make copies of themselves. Structural proteins are present in the cell mainly in
To understand the function of organs and other struc- the form of long filaments that are polymers of many
tures of the body, it is essential that we first understand individual protein molecules. A prominent use of such
the basic organization of the cell and the functions of its intracellular filaments is to form microtubules that provide
component parts. the “cytoskeletons” of such cellular organelles as cilia,
nerve axons, the mitotic spindles of cells undergoing
mitosis, and a tangled mass of thin filamentous tubules
ORGANIZATION OF THE CELL
that hold the parts of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm
A typical cell, as seen by the light microscope, is shown together in their respective compartments. Fibrillar pro-
in Figure 2-1. Its two major parts are the nucleus and the teins are found outside the cell, especially in the collagen
cytoplasm. The nucleus is separated from the cytoplasm and elastin fibers of connective tissue and in blood vessel
by a nuclear membrane, and the cytoplasm is separated walls, tendons, ligaments, and so forth.
from the surrounding fluids by a cell membrane, also The functional proteins are an entirely different type of
called the plasma membrane. protein and are usually composed of combinations of a
The different substances that make up the cell are col- few molecules in tubular-globular form. These proteins
lectively called protoplasm. Protoplasm is composed are mainly the enzymes of the cell and, in contrast to the
mainly of five basic substances: water, electrolytes, pro- fibrillar proteins, are often mobile in the cell fluid. Also,
teins, lipids, and carbohydrates. many of them are adherent to membranous structures
inside the cell. The enzymes come into direct contact with
Water. The principal fluid medium of the cell is water, other substances in the cell fluid and catalyze specific
which is present in most cells, except for fat cells, in a intracellular chemical reactions. For instance, the chemi-
concentration of 70 to 85 percent. Many cellular chemi- cal reactions that split glucose into its component parts
cals are dissolved in the water. Others are suspended in and then combine these with oxygen to form carbon
the water as solid particulates. Chemical reactions take dioxide and water while simultaneously providing energy
place among the dissolved chemicals or at the surfaces of for cellular function are all catalyzed by a series of protein
the suspended particles or membranes. enzymes.
Ions. Important ions in the cell include potassium, Lipids. Lipids are several types of substances that are
magnesium, phosphate, sulfate, bicarbonate, and smaller grouped together because of their common property of
quantities of sodium, chloride, and calcium. These ions being soluble in fat solvents. Especially important lipids
are all discussed in more detail in Chapter 4, which con- are phospholipids and cholesterol, which together consti-
siders the interrelations between the intracellular and tute only about 2 percent of the total cell mass. The sig-
extracellular fluids. nificance of phospholipids and cholesterol is that they are
The ions provide inorganic chemicals for cellular reac- mainly insoluble in water and therefore are used to form
tions and also are necessary for operation of some of the the cell membrane and intracellular membrane barriers
cellular control mechanisms. For instance, ions acting at that separate the different cell compartments.
11
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
12
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
Centrioles
UNIT I
Secretory
granule
Golgi
apparatus
Microtubules
Nuclear
membrane Cell
membrane
Nucleolus
Glycogen
Ribosomes
Lysosome
These molecules, in a sense, are dissolved in the bilayer lipid bilayer. Sometimes these carrier proteins even trans-
of the membrane. They mainly help determine the degree port substances in the direction opposite to their electro-
of permeability (or impermeability) of the bilayer to chemical gradients for diffusion, which is called “active
water-soluble constituents of body fluids. Cholesterol transport.” Still others act as enzymes.
controls much of the fluidity of the membrane as well. Integral membrane proteins can also serve as recep
tors for water-soluble chemicals, such as peptide hor-
Integral and Peripheral Cell Membrane Proteins. mones, that do not easily penetrate the cell membrane.
Figure 2-3 also shows globular masses floating in the Interaction of cell membrane receptors with specific
lipid bilayer. These membrane proteins are mainly glyco ligands that bind to the receptor causes conformational
proteins. There are two types of cell membrane proteins: changes in the receptor protein. This process, in turn,
integral proteins that protrude all the way through the enzymatically activates the intracellular part of the protein
membrane and peripheral proteins that are attached only or induces interactions between the receptor and proteins
to one surface of the membrane and do not penetrate all in the cytoplasm that act as second messengers, relaying
the way through. the signal from the extracellular part of the receptor
Many of the integral proteins provide structural chan to the interior of the cell. In this way, integral proteins
nels (or pores) through which water molecules and water- spanning the cell membrane provide a means of con
soluble substances, especially ions, can diffuse between veying information about the environment to the cell
the extracellular and intracellular fluids. These protein interior.
channels also have selective properties that allow prefer- Peripheral protein molecules are often attached to the
ential diffusion of some substances over others. integral proteins. These peripheral proteins function
Other integral proteins act as carrier proteins for trans- almost entirely as enzymes or as controllers of transport
porting substances that otherwise could not penetrate the of substances through the cell membrane “pores.”
13
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
Carbohydrate
Extracellular
fluid
Integral protein
Lipid
bilayer
Peripheral
protein
Intracellular
fluid
Cytoplasm
Integral protein
Figure 2-3. Structure of the cell membrane, showing that it is composed mainly of a lipid bilayer of phospholipid molecules, but with large
numbers of protein molecules protruding through the layer. Also, carbohydrate moieties are attached to the protein molecules on the outside
of the membrane and to additional protein molecules on the inside. (Modified from Lodish HF, Rothman JE: The assembly of cell membranes.
Sci Am 240:48, 1979. Copyright George V. Kevin.)
Membrane Carbohydrates—The Cell “Glycocalyx.” bound, this combination activates attached internal
Membrane carbohydrates occur almost invariably in proteins that, in turn, activate a cascade of intracel-
combination with proteins or lipids in the form of glyco lular enzymes.
proteins or glycolipids. In fact, most of the integral 4. Some carbohydrate moieties enter into immune
proteins are glycoproteins, and about one tenth of the reactions, as discussed in Chapter 35.
membrane lipid molecules are glycolipids. The “glyco”
portions of these molecules almost invariably protrude
CYTOPLASM AND ITS ORGANELLES
to the outside of the cell, dangling outward from the
cell surface. Many other carbohydrate compounds, The cytoplasm is filled with both minute and large dis-
called proteoglycans—which are mainly carbohydrate persed particles and organelles. The jelly-like fluid portion
substances bound to small protein cores—are loosely of the cytoplasm in which the particles are dispersed is
attached to the outer surface of the cell as well. Thus, the called cytosol and contains mainly dissolved proteins,
entire outside surface of the cell often has a loose carbo- electrolytes, and glucose.
hydrate coat called the glycocalyx. Dispersed in the cytoplasm are neutral fat globules,
The carbohydrate moieties attached to the outer glycogen granules, ribosomes, secretory vesicles, and five
surface of the cell have several important functions: especially important organelles: the endoplasmic reticu
1. Many of them have a negative electrical charge, lum, the Golgi apparatus, mitochondria, lysosomes, and
which gives most cells an overall negative surface peroxisomes.
charge that repels other negatively charged objects.
2. The glycocalyx of some cells attaches to the glyco- Endoplasmic Reticulum
calyx of other cells, thus attaching cells to one Figure 2-2 shows a network of tubular and flat vesicular
another. structures in the cytoplasm, which is the endoplasmic
3. Many of the carbohydrates act as receptor sub reticulum. This organelle helps process molecules made
stances for binding hormones, such as insulin; when by the cell and transports them to their specific
14
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
Golgi vesicles
Matrix
Golgi
UNIT I
apparatus
ER vesicles
Endoplasmic
reticulum
Granular
endoplasmic Agranular
reticulum endoplasmic
reticulum Figure 2-5. A typical Golgi apparatus and its relationship to the
endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and the nucleus.
Figure 2-4. Structure of the endoplasmic reticulum. (Modified from
DeRobertis EDP, Saez FA, DeRobertis EMF: Cell Biology, 6th ed.
Philadelphia: WB Saunders, 1975.)
is called the agranular or smooth, endoplasmic reticulum.
The agranular reticulum functions for the synthesis of
destinations inside or outside the cell. The tubules and lipid substances and for other processes of the cells pro-
vesicles interconnect. Also, their walls are constructed of moted by intrareticular enzymes.
lipid bilayer membranes that contain large amounts of
proteins, similar to the cell membrane. The total surface Golgi Apparatus
area of this structure in some cells—the liver cells, for The Golgi apparatus, shown in Figure 2-5, is closely
instance—can be as much as 30 to 40 times the cell mem- related to the endoplasmic reticulum. It has membranes
brane area. similar to those of the agranular endoplasmic reticulum.
The detailed structure of a small portion of endo The Golgi apparatus is usually composed of four or more
plasmic reticulum is shown in Figure 2-4. The space stacked layers of thin, flat, enclosed vesicles lying near one
inside the tubules and vesicles is filled with endo side of the nucleus. This apparatus is prominent in secre-
plasmic matrix, a watery medium that is different from tory cells, where it is located on the side of the cell from
the fluid in the cytosol outside the endoplasmic reticu- which the secretory substances are extruded.
lum. Electron micrographs show that the space inside The Golgi apparatus functions in association with
the endoplasmic reticulum is connected with the space the endoplasmic reticulum. As shown in Figure 2-5,
between the two membrane surfaces of the nuclear small “transport vesicles” (also called endoplasmic
membrane. reticulum vesicles, or ER vesicles) continually pinch off
Substances formed in some parts of the cell enter the from the endoplasmic reticulum and shortly thereafter
space of the endoplasmic reticulum and are then directed fuse with the Golgi apparatus. In this way, substances
to other parts of the cell. Also, the vast surface area of this entrapped in the ER vesicles are transported from the
reticulum and the multiple enzyme systems attached to endoplasmic reticulum to the Golgi apparatus. The trans-
its membranes provide machinery for a major share of the ported substances are then processed in the Golgi appa-
metabolic functions of the cell. ratus to form lysosomes, secretory vesicles, and other
cytoplasmic components that are discussed later in this
Ribosomes and the Granular Endoplasmic Reticulum. chapter.
Attached to the outer surfaces of many parts of the endo-
plasmic reticulum are large numbers of minute granular Lysosomes
particles called ribosomes. Where these particles are Lysosomes, shown in Figure 2-2, are vesicular organelles
present, the reticulum is called the granular endoplasmic that form by breaking off from the Golgi apparatus and
reticulum. The ribosomes are composed of a mixture of then dispersing throughout the cytoplasm. The lysosomes
RNA and proteins, and they function to synthesize new provide an intracellular digestive system that allows the
protein molecules in the cell, as discussed later in this cell to digest (1) damaged cellular structures, (2) food
chapter and in Chapter 3. particles that have been ingested by the cell, and (3)
unwanted matter such as bacteria. The lysosome is quite
Agranular Endoplasmic Reticulum. Part of the endo- different in various cell types, but it is usually 250 to 750
plasmic reticulum has no attached ribosomes. This part nanometers in diameter. It is surrounded by a typical lipid
15
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
Peroxisomes
Peroxisomes are similar physically to lysosomes, but they Oxidative
are different in two important ways. First, they are believed phosphorylation
to be formed by self-replication (or perhaps by budding Outer chamber enzymes
off from the smooth endoplasmic reticulum) rather than Figure 2-7. Structure of a mitochondrion. (Modified from DeRobertis
from the Golgi apparatus. Second, they contain oxidases EDP, Saez FA, DeRobertis EMF: Cell Biology, 6th ed. Philadelphia: WB
rather than hydrolases. Several of the oxidases are capable Saunders, 1975.)
of combining oxygen with hydrogen ions derived from
different intracellular chemicals to form hydrogen perox-
ide (H2O2). Hydrogen peroxide is a highly oxidizing sub- Mitochondria
stance and is used in association with catalase, another The mitochondria, shown in Figures 2-2 and 2-7, are
oxidase enzyme present in large quantities in peroxi- called the “powerhouses” of the cell. Without them, cells
somes, to oxidize many substances that might otherwise would be unable to extract enough energy from the nutri-
be poisonous to the cell. For instance, about half the ents, and essentially all cellular functions would cease.
alcohol a person drinks is detoxified into acetaldehyde by Mitochondria are present in all areas of each cell’s
the peroxisomes of the liver cells in this manner. A major cytoplasm, but the total number per cell varies from less
function of peroxisomes is to catabolize long chain fatty than a hundred up to several thousand, depending on the
acids. amount of energy required by the cell. The cardiac muscle
cells (cardiomyocytes), for example, use large amounts of
Secretory Vesicles energy and have far more mitochondria than do fat cells
One of the important functions of many cells is secretion (adipocytes), which are much less active and use less
of special chemical substances. Almost all such secretory energy. Further, the mitochondria are concentrated in
substances are formed by the endoplasmic reticulum– those portions of the cell that are responsible for the
Golgi apparatus system and are then released from the major share of its energy metabolism. They are also vari-
Golgi apparatus into the cytoplasm in the form of storage able in size and shape. Some mitochondria are only a few
vesicles called secretory vesicles or secretory granules. hundred nanometers in diameter and are globular in
Figure 2-6 shows typical secretory vesicles inside pancre- shape, whereas others are elongated and are as large as 1
atic acinar cells; these vesicles store protein proenzymes micrometer in diameter and 7 micrometers long; still
(enzymes that are not yet activated). The proenzymes are others are branching and filamentous.
secreted later through the outer cell membrane into the The basic structure of the mitochondrion, shown in
pancreatic duct and thence into the duodenum, where Figure 2-7, is composed mainly of two lipid bilayer–
they become activated and perform digestive functions protein membranes: an outer membrane and an inner
on the food in the intestinal tract. membrane. Many infoldings of the inner membrane form
16
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
UNIT I
These enzymes operate in association with the oxidative
enzymes on the cristae to cause oxidation of the nutri-
ents, thereby forming carbon dioxide and water and at the
same time releasing energy. The liberated energy is used
to synthesize a “high-energy” substance called adenosine
triphosphate (ATP). ATP is then transported out of the
mitochondrion and diffuses throughout the cell to release
its own energy wherever it is needed for performing cel-
lular functions. The chemical details of ATP formation by
the mitochondrion are provided in Chapter 68, but some Figure 2-8. Microtubules teased from the flagellum of a sperm.
of the basic functions of ATP in the cell are introduced (From Wolstenholme GEW, O’Connor M, and the publisher, JA
later in this chapter. Churchill, 1967. Figure 4, page 314. Copyright the Novartis
Mitochondria are self-replicative, which means that Foundation, formerly the Ciba Foundation.)
one mitochondrion can form a second one, a third one,
and so on, whenever there is a need in the cell for increased
amounts of ATP. Indeed, the mitochondria contain DNA Thus, a primary function of microtubules is to act as a
similar to that found in the cell nucleus. In Chapter 3 we cytoskeleton, providing rigid physical structures for certain
will see that DNA is the basic chemical of the nucleus that parts of cells. The cytoskeleton of the cell not only deter-
controls replication of the cell. The DNA of the mitochon- mines cell shape but also participates in cell division,
drion plays a similar role, controlling replication of the allows cells to move, and provides a track-like system that
mitochondrion. Cells that are faced with increased energy directs the movement of organelles within the cells.
demands—which occurs, for example, in skeletal muscles
subjected to chronic exercise training—may increase the Nucleus
density of mitochondria to supply the additional energy The nucleus, which is the control center of the cell, sends
required. messages to the cell to grow and mature, to replicate, or
to die. Briefly, the nucleus contains large quantities of
Cell Cytoskeleton—Filament and DNA, which comprise the genes. The genes determine the
Tubular Structures characteristics of the cell’s proteins, including the struc-
The cell cytoskeleton is a network of fibrillar proteins tural proteins, as well as the intracellular enzymes that
organized into filaments or tubules. These originate as control cytoplasmic and nuclear activities.
precursor protein molecules synthesized by ribosomes in The genes also control and promote reproduction
the cytoplasm. The precursor molecules then polymerize of the cell. The genes first reproduce to create two identi-
to form filaments. As an example, large numbers of actin cal sets of genes; then the cell splits by a special process
filaments frequently occur in the outer zone of the cyto- called mitosis to form two daughter cells, each of which
plasm, called the ectoplasm, to form an elastic support for receives one of the two sets of DNA genes. All these
the cell membrane. Also, in muscle cells, actin and myosin activities of the nucleus are considered in detail in
filaments are organized into a special contractile machine Chapter 3.
that is the basis for muscle contraction, as is discussed in Unfortunately, the appearance of the nucleus under the
detail in Chapter 6. microscope does not provide many clues to the mecha-
A special type of stiff filament composed of polymer- nisms by which the nucleus performs its control activities.
ized tubulin molecules is used in all cells to construct Figure 2-9 shows the light microscopic appearance of the
strong tubular structures, the microtubules. Figure interphase nucleus (during the period between mitoses),
2-8 shows typical microtubules from the flagellum of revealing darkly staining chromatin material throughout
a sperm. the nucleoplasm. During mitosis, the chromatin material
Another example of microtubules is the tubular skel- organizes in the form of highly structured chromosomes,
etal structure in the center of each cilium that radiates which can then be easily identified using the light micro-
upward from the cell cytoplasm to the tip of the cilium. scope, as illustrated in Chapter 3.
This structure is discussed later in the chapter and is
illustrated in Figure 2-18. Also, both the centrioles and Nuclear Membrane. The nuclear membrane, also called
the mitotic spindle of the mitosing cell are composed of the nuclear envelope, is actually two separate bilayer
stiff microtubules. membranes, one inside the other. The outer membrane is
17
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
Nucleolus
1 µm Bacterium
Nuclear envelope:
outer and inner
membranes Cell
Cytoplasm
5-10 µm+
Figure 2-9. Structure of the nucleus.
Figure 2-10. Comparison of sizes of precellular organisms with that
of the average cell in the human body.
18
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
Proteins Receptors
FUNCTIONAL SYSTEMS OF THE CELL
Coated pit
Clathrin
In the remainder of this chapter, we discuss several rep-
resentative functional systems of the cell that make it a
living organism.
UNIT I
A B
INGESTION BY THE CELL—ENDOCYTOSIS
If a cell is to live and grow and reproduce, it must obtain Actin and myosin Dissolving clathrin
nutrients and other substances from the surrounding
fluids. Most substances pass through the cell membrane
by diffusion and active transport.
Diffusion involves simple movement through the
membrane caused by the random motion of the mole-
cules of the substance; substances move either through C D
cell membrane pores or, in the case of lipid-soluble sub- Figure 2-11. Mechanism of pinocytosis.
stances, through the lipid matrix of the membrane.
Active transport involves the actual carrying of a
substance through the membrane by a physical protein surface properties of the local membrane change in such
structure that penetrates all the way through the mem- a way that the entire pit invaginates inward and the fibril-
brane. These active transport mechanisms are so impor- lar proteins surrounding the invaginating pit cause its
tant to cell function that they are presented in detail in borders to close over the attached proteins, as well as over
Chapter 4. a small amount of extracellular fluid. Immediately there-
Very large particles enter the cell by a specialized func- after, the invaginated portion of the membrane breaks
tion of the cell membrane called endocytosis. The princi- away from the surface of the cell, forming a pinocytotic
pal forms of endocytosis are pinocytosis and phagocytosis. vesicle inside the cytoplasm of the cell.
Pinocytosis means ingestion of minute particles that form What causes the cell membrane to go through the
vesicles of extracellular fluid and particulate constituents necessary contortions to form pinocytotic vesicles is still
inside the cell cytoplasm. Phagocytosis means ingestion unclear. This process requires energy from within the cell,
of large particles, such as bacteria, whole cells, or portions which is supplied by ATP, a high-energy substance dis-
of degenerating tissue. cussed later in this chapter. This process also requires the
presence of calcium ions in the extracellular fluid, which
Pinocytosis. Pinocytosis occurs continually in the cell probably react with contractile protein filaments beneath
membranes of most cells, but it is especially rapid in some the coated pits to provide the force for pinching the ves-
cells. For instance, it occurs so rapidly in macrophages icles away from the cell membrane.
that about 3 percent of the total macrophage membrane
is engulfed in the form of vesicles each minute. Even so, Phagocytosis. Phagocytosis occurs in much the same
the pinocytotic vesicles are so small—usually only 100 to way as pinocytosis occurs, except that it involves large
200 nanometers in diameter—that most of them can be particles rather than molecules. Only certain cells have
seen only with an electron microscope. the capability of phagocytosis, most notably the tissue
Pinocytosis is the only means by which most large macrophages and some white blood cells.
macromolecules, such as most protein molecules, can Phagocytosis is initiated when a particle such as a bac-
enter cells. In fact, the rate at which pinocytotic vesicles terium, a dead cell, or tissue debris binds with receptors
form is usually enhanced when such macromolecules on the surface of the phagocyte. In the case of bacteria,
attach to the cell membrane. each bacterium is usually already attached to a specific
Figure 2-11 demonstrates the successive steps of antibody, and it is the antibody that attaches to the phago-
pinocytosis, showing three molecules of protein attaching cyte receptors, dragging the bacterium along with it. This
to the membrane. These molecules usually attach to spe- intermediation of antibodies is called opsonization, which
cialized protein receptors on the surface of the membrane is discussed in Chapters 34 and 35.
that are specific for the type of protein that is to be Phagocytosis occurs in the following steps:
absorbed. The receptors generally are concentrated in 1. The cell membrane receptors attach to the surface
small pits on the outer surface of the cell membrane, ligands of the particle.
called coated pits. On the inside of the cell membrane 2. The edges of the membrane around the points of
beneath these pits is a latticework of fibrillar protein attachment evaginate outward within a fraction of
called clathrin, as well as other proteins, perhaps includ- a second to surround the entire particle; then, pro-
ing contractile filaments of actin and myosin. Once the gressively more and more membrane receptors
protein molecules have bound with the receptors, the attach to the particle ligands. All this occurs
19
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
20
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
UNIT I
NUCLEATION
lipids, especially phospholipids and cholesterol. These
lipids are rapidly incorporated into the lipid bilayer of the
endoplasmic reticulum itself, thus causing the endoplas-
mic reticulum to grow more extensive. This process
occurs mainly in the smooth portion of the endoplasmic
reticulum.
To keep the endoplasmic reticulum from growing
AUTOSOME
FORMATION
beyond the needs of the cell, small vesicles called ER
vesicles or transport vesicles continually break away from
the smooth reticulum; most of these vesicles then migrate
Autophagosome rapidly to the Golgi apparatus.
21
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
Glucose Gl
36 ADP
Fatty acids FA
Amino acids AA Pyruvic acid
Acetoacetic
acid
Acetyl-CoA
O2 O2 O2 ADP
CO2 CO2 CO2 + H2O ATP
smooth endoplasmic reticulum that lie nearest the Golgi Exocytosis, in most cases, is stimulated by the entry of
apparatus. At this point, small transport vesicles com- calcium ions into the cell; calcium ions interact with the
posed of small envelopes of smooth endoplasmic reticu- vesicular membrane in some way that is not understood
lum continually break away and diffuse to the deepest and cause its fusion with the cell membrane, followed by
layer of the Golgi apparatus. Inside these vesicles are the exocytosis—that is, opening of the membrane’s outer
synthesized proteins and other products from the endo- surface and extrusion of its contents outside the cell.
plasmic reticulum. Some vesicles, however, are destined for intracellular use.
The transport vesicles instantly fuse with the Golgi
apparatus and empty their contained substances into the Use of Intracellular Vesicles to Replenish Cellular
vesicular spaces of the Golgi apparatus. Here, additional Membranes. Some of the intracellular vesicles formed
carbohydrate moieties are added to the secretions. Also, by the Golgi apparatus fuse with the cell membrane or
an important function of the Golgi apparatus is to compact with the membranes of intracellular structures such as the
the endoplasmic reticular secretions into highly concen- mitochondria and even the endoplasmic reticulum. This
trated packets. As the secretions pass toward the outer- fusion increases the expanse of these membranes and
most layers of the Golgi apparatus, the compaction and thereby replenishes the membranes as they are used up.
processing proceed. Finally, both small and large vesicles For instance, the cell membrane loses much of its sub-
continually break away from the Golgi apparatus, carry- stance every time it forms a phagocytic or pinocytotic
ing with them the compacted secretory substances, and vesicle, and the vesicular membranes of the Golgi appa-
in turn, the vesicles diffuse throughout the cell. ratus continually replenish the cell membrane.
The following example provides an idea of the timing In summary, the membranous system of the endoplas-
of these processes: When a glandular cell is bathed in mic reticulum and Golgi apparatus represents a highly
radioactive amino acids, newly formed radioactive protein metabolic organ capable of forming new intracellular
molecules can be detected in the granular endoplasmic structures, as well as secretory substances to be extruded
reticulum within 3 to 5 minutes. Within 20 minutes, from the cell.
newly formed proteins are already present in the Golgi
apparatus, and within 1 to 2 hours, the proteins are
THE MITOCHONDRIA EXTRACT ENERGY
secreted from the surface of the cell.
FROM NUTRIENTS
Types of Vesicles Formed by the Golgi Apparatus— The principal substances from which cells extract energy
Secretory Vesicles and Lysosomes. In a highly secre- are foodstuffs that react chemically with oxygen—
tory cell, the vesicles formed by the Golgi apparatus are carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. In the human body,
mainly secretory vesicles containing protein substances essentially all carbohydrates are converted into glucose
that are to be secreted through the surface of the cell by the digestive tract and liver before they reach the other
membrane. These secretory vesicles first diffuse to the cell cells of the body. Similarly, proteins are converted into
membrane, then fuse with it and empty their substances amino acids and fats are converted into fatty acids.
to the exterior by the mechanism called exocytosis. Figure 2-15 shows oxygen and the foodstuffs—glucose,
22
Chapter 2 The Cell and Its Functions
fatty acids, and amino acids—all entering the cell. Inside subjected to enzymes in the cytoplasm that convert it into
the cell, the foodstuffs react chemically with oxygen, pyruvic acid (a process called glycolysis). A small amount
under the influence of enzymes that control the reactions of ADP is changed into ATP by the energy released during
and channel the energy released in the proper direction. this conversion, but this amount accounts for less than 5
The details of all these digestive and metabolic functions percent of the overall energy metabolism of the cell.
are provided in Chapters 63 through 73. About 95 percent of the cell’s ATP formation occurs in
UNIT I
Briefly, almost all these oxidative reactions occur inside the mitochondria. The pyruvic acid derived from carbo-
the mitochondria, and the energy that is released is used hydrates, fatty acids from lipids, and amino acids from
to form the high-energy compound ATP. Then, ATP, not proteins is eventually converted into the compound
the original foodstuffs, is used throughout the cell to ener- acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) in the matrix of mitochondria.
gize almost all of the subsequent intracellular metabolic This substance, in turn, is further dissoluted (for the
reactions. purpose of extracting its energy) by another series of
enzymes in the mitochondrion matrix, undergoing dis-
Functional Characteristics of ATP solution in a sequence of chemical reactions called the
NH2 citric acid cycle, or Krebs cycle. These chemical reactions
are so important that they are explained in detail in
N C Chapter 68.
C N
HC Adenine In this citric acid cycle, acetyl-CoA is split into its
C CH component parts, hydrogen atoms and carbon dioxide.
N N O O O
The carbon dioxide diffuses out of the mitochondria and
O CH2 O P O~P O~P O– eventually out of the cell; finally, it is excreted from the
C H O– O– O– body through the lungs.
H C
Phosphate
The hydrogen atoms, conversely, are highly reactive,
H C C H and they combine with oxygen that has also diffused into
the mitochondria. This combination releases a tremen-
OH OH
dous amount of energy, which is used by the mitochon-
Ribose
dria to convert large amounts of ADP to ATP. The
Adenosine triphosphate
processes of these reactions are complex, requiring the
ATP is a nucleotide composed of (1) the nitrogenous base participation of many protein enzymes that are integral
adenine, (2) the pentose sugar ribose, and (3) three phos parts of mitochondrial membranous shelves that protrude
phate radicals. The last two phosphate radicals are con- into the mitochondrial matrix. The initial event is removal
nected with the remainder of the molecule by so-called of an electron from the hydrogen atom, thus converting
high-energy phosphate bonds, which are represented in it to a hydrogen ion. The terminal event is combination
the formula shown by the symbol ~. Under the physical of hydrogen ions with oxygen to form water plus release
and chemical conditions of the body, each of these high- of tremendous amounts of energy to large globular pro-
energy bonds contains about 12,000 calories of energy per teins that protrude like knobs from the membranes of the
mole of ATP, which is many times greater than the energy mitochondrial shelves; this process is called ATP synthe
stored in the average chemical bond, thus giving rise to tase. Finally, the enzyme ATP synthetase uses the energy
the term high-energy bond. Further, the high-energy phos- from the hydrogen ions to cause the conversion of ADP
phate bond is very labile so that it can be split instantly to ATP. The newly formed ATP is transported out of the
on demand whenever energy is required to promote other mitochondria into all parts of the cell cytoplasm and
intracellular reactions. nucleoplasm, where its energy is used to energize multi-
When ATP releases its energy, a phosphoric acid ple cell functions.
radical is split away and adenosine diphosphate (ADP) is This overall process for formation of ATP is called the
formed. This released energy is used to energize many of chemiosmotic mechanism of ATP formation. The chemi-
the cell’s other functions, such as synthesis of substances cal and physical details of this mechanism are presented
and muscular contraction. in Chapter 68, and many of the detailed metabolic func-
To reconstitute the cellular ATP as it is used up, energy tions of ATP in the body are presented in Chapters 68
derived from the cellular nutrients causes ADP and phos- through 72.
phoric acid to recombine to form new ATP, and the entire
process is repeated over and over again. For these reasons, Uses of ATP for Cellular Function. Energy from ATP is
ATP has been called the energy currency of the cell used to promote three major categories of cellular func-
because it can be spent and remade continually, having a tions: (1) transport of substances through multiple mem-
turnover time of only a few minutes. branes in the cell, (2) synthesis of chemical compounds
throughout the cell, and (3) mechanical work. These uses
Chemical Processes in the Formation of ATP—Role of of ATP are illustrated by examples in Figure 2-16: (1) to
the Mitochondria. Upon entry into the cells, glucose is supply energy for the transport of sodium through the
23
Unit I Introduction to Physiology: The Cell and General Physiology
Membrane
transport Endoplasmic Endocytosis
reticulum
Pseudopodium
Protein synthesis
Na+ Na+ ATP ADP
Exocytosis
ADP
Mitochondrion
24
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of Sun and moon
This ebook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States
and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no
restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it
under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this
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you are located before using this eBook.
Language: English
Credits: Al Haines
by
VINCENT H. GOWEN
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1927
Copyright, 1927,
BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
CHAPTER I
The clear sun of July shone through the garden foliage, making circles
of light on the grass wherever the inter-woven branches of the locusts
allowed its passage. Summer rains had washed the air of all dustiness,
swept the flags of the courtyards neat and clean, given new life to the
climbing trumpet flowers and a mossy springiness to the path round the
overflowing pool, into the waters of which the strong confident sunbeams
seemed to plunge deeper than they had ever before dared dive, and to stay,
joyfully exploring the green underdepths which matched the opulent color
of the garden. For the garden too promised joyful exploring. One had to
pass through courtyard after courtyard, through many large-timbered doors
swinging on wooden axles and through each hallway of the Chinese house,
sprawled out in section upon section, before entering this remote spot where
the walls of gray tile shut out the city so completely and gave the
impression of such space hidden in what really was quite small compass.
Children there were; from behind a round moon gate came the clamor
of their voices. But one stopped, astonished at the sight, for they were not
the sedate children, the long-gowned boys and gracefully clad girls, one
expected in so meditative a garden. They were not the offspring of Ming
scrolls, as they should have been, transferred into life itself from the
leisurely brush-strokes of old paintings, but strange barbarians, violent in
their play, electric in the energy with which they defied the sun and its heat.
The moon gate opened on a place apart, a place of shrubs and formal
pathways, but with two large pine trees, gnarled and misshapen as though
they had outgrown human efforts to distort their branches, and with bamboo
brake on all sides springing up in untidy profusion, yet with the mystery of
its deep shadows making the walls seem more distant than they were.
In one of the middle branches of a pine tree sat a girl, swinging her feet
mischievously as she dropped cones on the boy who lay at full length on the
ground below. Whether he was trying to read or to write or even to sleep
was not quite apparent, for, though he lay amid a litter of books and paper,
with a stick of ink precariously balanced on the edge of an ink-stone and an
unsheathed brush close to his elbow, his one endeavor was to defend
himself with as little motion as possible from the bombardment above. This
he did chiefly by agile wriggling, seeming to anticipate the course of each
projectile by some sixth sense that spared him the trouble of looking up
and, when a well-aimed cone struck his neck or his feet, strengthening his
defense by racy Chinese abuse.
Yet it was not the sportiveness of the children which was so astonishing
as their scantily free clothing and the fact, at once remarkable, that they
were not Chinese children at all. The girl was easily fourteen or fifteen, but
she swung on her bough with the unabashed grace of a tomboy. Her few
garments suggested a creature that had grown up wild and untrammeled, for
they were quite out of keeping with the delicate restraint of the garden or
with the decorous attire the Chinese prescribe for their women. She wore
only a loose gauze vest and a pair of white drawers fastened at her waist by
a scarf of red silk. Her slippers had been flung off at the foot of the tree.
Except for the heavy braid of hair tossed over her shoulders and the
rounded curve of her breasts this strange maid might have been mistaken in
her straight coolness for a boy in disarray. But the abiding memory of her,
after even a moment's glimpse, was that she was not Chinese; the abiding
memory was of arms and legs too white for the Chinese skin, even for the
creamy ivory hue of the aristocrat, of a body longer, more fully built, feet
more amply turned, of cheeks livelier flushed than the face of the ruddiest
Chinese maiden, for the blood was not softened by that darker tinge of the
complexion which makes one think of youth's picture painted on old silk. It
was a miracle that under so ardent a sun the girl should have kept this
spring-like clarity of skin. Unless in the deep color of her hair and her eyes
she seemed to make no concession to the tropical warmth of July but to
belong to forests where cold streams from the mountains pass amid trees.
Her brother was equally foreign to the baked sandy plains of Peking. He
was possibly thirteen, with dark hair and dark eyes like the girl on the
branch above him and with the same inviolable fairness of skin. He had
reduced the encumbrance of garb to its limits and lay contentedly naked
except for cotton trousers which he had rolled half-way up his thighs. So
intent was he in countering pine cones with wordy retorts that he let a
whole column of ants explore his shoulders unresented till suddenly his
patience broke; he leaped to his feet, as swift as any untamed animal, and
scrambled up the tree to grapple with his tormentor. The girl was too quick
even for him and escaped from limb to limb, taunting him with her bare feet
for his impudence in hoping to seize her.
The boy broke into English, most alarming English, violent curses such
as foreigners in China use to loose their wrath on servants who luckily
cannot understand, mixed with phrases he could have learned only in books
—he showed at once that he had not acquired the tongue from playmates of
his own age but was speaking it from the need to say something
portentously terrible, something which to his youthful consciousness would
answer the purposes of blasphemy.
"You filthy devil, Nancy," he shouted, "I will strike you dead! I will
cause you to fall!"
"Oh, you naughty boy, Edward, you will cause me to fall, will you?"
Before the boy could move out upon her precarious platform, she had
let go her hold, doubled her knees, and shot from bough to bough down the
tree like a white cascade or like snow shaken free from overladen branches.
Edward, seeing his enemy had escaped, was satisfied in his turn to pelt
her with cones and was vigorously at battle when a third child, even
younger, emerged from the bamboo and protested at the noise of their
quarreling. This child, a girl, was decidedly different from the others. She
had Chinese complexion, Chinese features; she was dressed in the hot-
weather négligé which girls of her age could wear in the privacy of the
home, long loose trousers, stockings, slippers, an apron, cut so that it
covered the front of her body and held in place by strings round her back
and her neck. When she came up to Nancy, however, and stood beside the
taller girl, there was immediately apparent a resemblance between the two
children, a resemblance baffling to decipher, for, even when allowance was
made for four years' disparity in age, no one could say it consisted
definitely in eyes or mouth or even in the slightly un-Chinese prominence
of the nose, yet the resemblance was latently noticeable and was a likeness
which included the boy as well. This second girl, then, gave some clue to
the history of these strange children; she was certainly their half sister, and
it took no great powers of deduction to surmise European parents for them,
the same father and a Chinese mother for herself. Exactly this was the case.
Timothy Edward Oliver Herrick had been the subject of Peking scandal
twelve years before. He had, to the shocked astonishment of his friends,
"gone Chinese," which was another proof, to those who hated the drudgery
of turning the pages of Giles's heavy dictionary, that too much study of
Chinese makes men mad. He had come to China at the early age of twenty
—that was thirty years back—and risen quickly from post to post in the
Imperial Customs, passing his examinations brilliantly, learning much in all
the ports of the Middle Kingdom, charming society out of its stiffness by
his wit and tact, penetrating the aloofness of the mandarin, winning
distinction in diplomacy and sport, orders, badges, medals, cups, a whole
roomful of trophies, and marrying a girl fresh from her schooling in
England, the daughter of a consul and undeniably the loveliest, in a decade,
of those damsels who return to enjoy a brief season with exiled parents in
the East. So for four years they had lived, favored by wealth, honor, love,
the ingredients of a fairy tale, till on a sudden Nancy Herrick died,—cholera
that year struck down even those in high places,—while her husband retired
into a seclusion he never again broke.
Gossip, for once, was true to the facts, probably because society could
think of no exaggeration more dreadful than the truth. At the back of
twisting lanes, behind bright blue doors studded with brass, Timothy
Herrick had created a new world of his own in the spacious security of a
Chinese house and there with his wife and his concubines he lived the life
of a mandarin. He had discarded Western clothes, Western ways, discarded
his British nationality, taken to a moderate use of opium, and now passed
his time between an erudite searching of the Buddhist scriptures and the
composition of severely classical poems.
Yet this placid consolation for sorrow, this refinement of the patriarchal
life which has stood the Chinese race so well for centuries, had one or two
irritants. The first, seemingly small yet vexing, was Herrick's chagrin at his
failure to grow a queue or, rather, at the futility of a brown queue in a land
of black-haired people. He remembered the ridiculous figure of a
missionary who had tried this, and knew that while his own florid face, with
its heavy eyebrows and moustaches, bobbed up oddly from the collar of his
lavender jacket, it would look none the less incongruous if his square
forehead were shaved and the back of his head ornamented by a dwindling
tail. The Revolution, however hateful its other changes, did at least solve
this problem of how to be completely Chinese by making the queue
unfashionable.
The second irritant was of another kind and quite another degree; it
grew in seriousness with the passage of years and vexed the quiet of his
sleep. It was the fate of Nancy and Edward, the two children of his first
marriage. For his other children, he did not worry; there were several of
them, from Li-an, a girl of eleven, down to an infant son still being bumped
in his cradle, but they were all more Chinese than foreign and with the help
of generous betrothal gifts could be assimilated by the country of their birth.
Nancy and Edward were different. Although they never knowingly had
seen, apart from their father, another member of their own race and in
twelve years had left their compound only on the rarest occasion and then in
a covered mule cart to visit the Western Hills, there was no disguising their
foreign blood.
It had seemed easy, when they were babies, to mould them to their
environment by education and custom and speech, but there was a
stubbornness inherent in their nature which had resisted the Orient and kept
the girl and the boy exotic. They had lost claim to any country and grown
up disinherited by West and East alike. The father saw this more and more
plainly and regretted his selfishness in keeping them when it would have
been so easy to send them to his kinsfolk at home. At the time of his first
wife's death he could not bear to part with them. They were the only relic of
a woman he had loved so well that his whole after life had become a slow
descent, because his heart told him the hopelessness of living again on the
plane he had reached with her.
He had deliberately turned away from that life because it was ended, cut
short, impossible of being renewed. He had chosen in preference a life
which would ask no comparison with the past; the tale of his success was
being revealed in the relaxing lines of his mouth, the sensual fullness of his
chin, a hardening of the eyes. The more serenely burned the memory of his
wife,—the years never changing the austerity of her beauty, something
perfect like the imperishable beauty of jade,—the more contemptuous did
he grow in his thoughts of women, as if to mark her apartness, and give rein
to the amorous cruelty of a tyrant. One by one the children had seen the
household increase as some new young girl was bought to satisfy the whims
of their father, and one by one they had seen these favorites, after serving
their time as mistress and mother, relegated to the women's quarters, which
were daily becoming more expensive a luxury.
Trouble had begun after Li-an was born, the stepmother, with a child of
her own to advance, having tried to cow these children of an alien mother
by petty acts of jealousy, which it was fortunate for Nancy and Edward they
had the championship of their old nurse to resist. This nurse had been with
them all their lives, and, by fighting tooth and nail each effort to reduce
their position, had won for them a freedom from the quarrels and intrigues
of the family. As Li-an soon had other rivals to dispute her inheritance, her
mother had trouble enough in wielding her sway over the rank of inferior
wives and was content to let the foreign girl and boy go their way alone. So
they were in the family but not of it, intimately subject to the direction of
only one person, the old amah, who humored and spoiled them, telling them
always that they were superior beings and secretly undoing their father's
attempt to make them Chinese.
Herrick's desire was one the amah hotly resented. She had the peculiar
loyalty of an old servant and, remembering Nancy's mother with an
affection close to worship, looked with contempt on the women who had
followed. They were trash. She was not going to let Herrick's aberrations of
passion ruin the hopes of her foster children. With the servile fidelity of a
dog she had attached herself to creatures of an alien race, had wrapped her
interests in theirs, till her one wish was to see Miss Nancy and Master
Edward restored to their own people, where their station, she was sure,
would be almost royal. So she fed them with marvelous tales of the West; of
its greatness; tales of their own importance. She waited on their moods like
a slave and produced in them a bearing of haughty independence which
they never quite laid aside, even when they mixed in play with their half
brothers and half sisters or took their part chattily in the gossip of the inner
courts.
Their formal education, for a long time, had been only in Chinese, the
old classical education to which Herrick was partial. They had learned to
recite the Four Books and much of the Five Classics and had passed
through the obsolete training of Chinese youth, from the redundant
exercises laid like a yoke upon children—the Tri-metrical Classic, the
Thousand Character Classic—to the pleasanter fields of T'ang poetry, which
their teacher explained to them with unusual interest and skill, so that
Nancy and Edward often amused themselves patterning upon the hero and
heroines of the Red Balcony in contests for writing verse of their own. They
wrote well. They spent hours over characters and could fill a scroll with
swift symmetrical strokes. They could draw and paint landscapes which
they had never seen, landscapes of mountain and valley, temple and trees,
delicately colored after the unwavering tradition of the past. This, except for
the few novels their teacher approved, The Three Kingdoms, The Dream of
the Red Balcony, and Travels in the West, and the many which he did not
approve, novels they begged secretly from the women of the household and
which related with utmost frankness every physical detail of intercourse
between the sexes,—though the talk they had listened to all their lives left
them little need to be enlightened further,—this promised to be the whole of
their education till their father began, in a hesitating way, to teach them
English.
Timothy Herrick had not intended such instruction. It marked the first
timid thought of surrender, a breach in the logic of their training. But Nancy
at ten so disquieted him that he could not rest till he had made some amends
for depriving her these many years of the birthright of her native speech. If
his plans did fail,—he would not admit that they could,—if she and her
brother did resist their absorption into Chinese life, he could give them this
means of saving themselves. It was the least he could do, but it meant the
possibility of sending them to England, should the need come, where
among the uncles and cousins and aunts, to whom he had written not a word
in a decade, there were certainly some who could take his children in
charge.
Yet the first thoughts of the girl and the boy were always Chinese. Their
background was the Confucian background of their long-nailed teacher,
though there were side paths of course into Buddhist and Taoist lore, things
they learned from the women or from the nuns who came to collect alms.
Of Western history and life, of wars and political changes, they knew
scarcely more than the Chihli farmer ploughing his sandy fields or the
Mongolian camel-driver leading his tinkling caravan on the night road to
Peking. What they heard, except from the few colorless English books they
were allowed, was the chatter and gossip of the courts. Newspapers did not
come into the women's quarters; these were kept in that sombre room, their
father's study, where they dared go only when invited. So they felt
themselves better than the Chinese they mingled with, but no kin to the
prodigious people of the West.
This was both more and less than Timothy Herrick had planned.
CHAPTER II
The bell rang for tiffin. The servants were very punctilious about this
bell. The custom of ringing it, imported by the amah for the seemly benefit
of her two children, had become a family rite and the subject of much pride
to the women, who boasted to the families round about that they were
always called to meals by this stately summons. Such was Nancy's and
Edward's deference to the custom that they rushed immediately to their
rooms, Li-an only a step behind them, and had soon appeared, clad in
trousers and jacket, to do honor, as their nurse had taught them, to the
formality of the noonday meal.
Herrick of course did not eat with them. The condescension was not
expected. But the size of his family was amply demonstrated by the women
and children who had gathered round the square tables in the room which
was referred to rather proudly as the dining-room, although dining was only
one of its dozen functions. Nancy and Edward sat at one table with their
half sister Li-an and her mother, the woman who as Herrick's wife held the
right of first place in the household.
Hai t'ai-t'ai, as she was called, was not an old woman; she had been less
than twenty when her father, Herrick's teacher for many years, a man
harassed by a shoal of impecunious relations, saw profit to his family and
the strengthening of a curious attachment in marrying his daughter to this
wealthy Commissioner of Customs. But responsibilities had aged her
appearance till she seemed nearer fifty than thirty,—responsibilities and
much good eating,—so that she was now a stout matronly person with the
wooden masklike face which goes with dignity. On her shoulders fell the
management of the establishment, the settlement of the many disputes
which were bound to arise where wives and maids and menservants and
children of several breeds were so inextricably mixed.
On the whole, she was equal to her place. She maintained her rule with
considerable strictness, controlled expenditure thriftily enough to lay aside
means of her own, saw that Li-an, if she could not lord it over Nancy and
Edward, could at least lord it over the inferior brothers and sisters that had
followed. She would not have exchanged the privileges of power for the
less substantial marks of favor which fell to the lot of the younger wives.
From only one person could she claim no obedience; that was the nurse.
But Hai t'ai-t'ai, in the happy old Chinese manner of compromise, tacitly
recognized the care of the two white children as a matter outside her
province, accepting them as though they were ambassadors with treaty
rights in her kingdom.
Between the two other tables the four concubines and their families
were divided. To the casual observer they seemed an amiable, good-
tempered group, knit together into a queer democracy, democracy based
upon a man's more volatile affections, yet there was not a person among
them who did not have her own pretensions and rights, so that the family, if
all secrets could be told, was the most carefully graded of principalities.
Since all of them, like the t'ai-t'ai herself, had been chosen because they
satisfied Herrick's fastidious notions of beauty, all were young, all were
vivacious and handsome. It was not fading of feature but cares of
motherhood that had caused each in turn to be supplanted, although none of
them could claim her master's love to the exclusion of the others.
As secondary wives, they lacked of course the rank of the t'ai-t'ai; they
also lacked her gentility. But they were not deterred by the fact of inferior
station from grumbling over her control and imagining ways of replacing
her in the management of the family. The oldest of these concubines felt
particularly aggrieved because she had borne her master two sons and by
Chinese custom should have stepped definitely ahead of a wife who had
borne but one miserable daughter. She felt her injury more deeply as the
years passed; the delights of the table, from which she could not hold
herself back, were visibly altering the daintiness of her figure and she
deemed it only fair, only the natural course, that she should regain through
her sons the influence her body was resigning.
Of the other three, two had been mothers once and had the prospect of
soon being mothers again, while the last was a young slave girl of
seventeen who had been exalted to the rank of mistress by the recent whim
of her master. The two mothers were pretty, ordinary women, very much
wrapped in their children and busier ramming chopsticks into those sticky
mouths than in filling their own. They accepted the lead of the first
concubine, aligning themselves with her complaints, but they were always
properly docile in the presence of the t'ai-t'ai and, if left alone, would have
found business enough in the care of their children.
It was a further cause for quarrel with the t'ai-t'ai that this wanton
creature had been taken particularly under her protection. Indeed, she was
accused of having brought about Kuei-lien's advancement. Most of the
slave girls were coarse drudges, soon polluted by the sluttery of their living
quarters. Kuei-lien not only had been bought at the instance of the t'ai-t'ai
but made the subject of partial treatment, spared the harder tasks, given
better clothes, and defended from the familiarity of the menservants. So
there was reason to perceive more design than accident in Herrick's
discovery of the girl and his command that she be divested of her humble
attire, bathed, dressed in costly silks, and brought like a queen to his
chamber.
But Kuei-lien had disdained these wary tactics. She had set herself quite
openly to win Nancy's affection and of course had met no reverse, since the
charm which had won the father was easily adaptable to winning the
daughter. Nancy even had asked the t'ai-t'ai to put Kuei-lien at the table
with them, but this slight upon the others Hai t'ai-t'ai and the amah both
agreed was not politic. Still there was nothing to prevent Kuei-lien's
spending much time in Nancy's room, which the others never entered of
their own accord, where talk, replete with zest and flavor, helped the
intimacy to grow.
The championship of the amah had won her charges more seclusion
than the others enjoyed. The house, like all Chinese houses, was of many
sections, divided by courtyards, and, like the houses of the North, it was
substantially built. Occupants and servants and even the dogs moved with
no thought of privacy through its rooms and hallways, that is, through all
except the portion allotted to Nancy and Edward. Now that the brother and
sister had grown too old to live together, they had been given the choicest
part of the house and the innermost, where they lived, virtually isolated,
between the garden and the last of the courts, with the t'ai-t'ai and their
amah for the only immediate neighbors.
They could have asked no place more charming. Their rooms were to
left and right of the hallway; which was continued in a straight line through
every section of the house so that if all the heavy middle doors had been
opened the garden could have been seen from the street as at the end of a
long tunnel. Their doors and windows faced the courtyard and this was a
very pleasant place. Locust trees towered on either side; from their lowest
branches hung cages in which canaries sang and starlings raucously
mimicked human speech. Into the pavement two small pools had been built,
where goldfish flashed their tails as they swam to and fro round islands of
porous rock on which tiny houses and temples and bridges and figures of
men and women, in fascinating diversity of posture, had been set to give
lifelikeness to the mossy crags. There were flower beds too, multicolored in
their profusion of zinnia and canna and marigold, while a vine with
diminutive scarlet blossoms climbed the bamboo scaffolding, across which
matting was rolled to break the glare of the sun.
Here Nancy and Edward enjoyed very comfortable quiet. Except when
servants went through to wash clothes in the pond, they were seldom
disturbed; the concubines preferred the liveliness of their own courtyard
and rarely went walking in the garden till the afternoon sun had gone down.
All day long, after the clothes had been beaten dry on flat stones and the
thumping of wooden paddles had ceased, the children heard only the songs
of their birds and the agreeably shrill noise of the cicada.
Since her preferment, however, the slave girl Kuei-lien had become a
visitor to Nancy's room and at any hour of the day, when the children were