This chapter reviews major steps in the history of respiratory physiology,
without laying claims to completeness. Throughout the centuries, the growth to present
knowledge of pulmonary physiology and pathophysiology has not been a smooth steady
climb, but rather a slow, often clumsy, walk punctuated by clever inventions, startling
discoveries and amazing insights, but also by backward steps, misunderstandings,
mistakes, controversies, rediscoveries, conflicts, prejudices and superstitions. In this
brief review, we will travel in time from centuries before common-era to present,
witnessing the progress of knowledge through periods such as the Greco-Roman era,
the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 17th, 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, the three
golden decades of the 20th century (1940-1970) and beyond.
Keywords: Acid-Base Balance, Alveoli, Animal Heat, Bohr Effect, Capillaries,
Carbon Dioxide, Dead Space, 2, 3-Diphosphoglycerate (2, 3-DPG), Gas Diffusion,
Haldane Effect, Hemoglobin, Inert-Gas-Elimination Technique, Lung-Chest
Compliance, Lung Diffusion, O2-CO2 Diagram, Oxygen, Respiratory Centers,
Surfactant, Three-Compartment-Model, Tissue Metabolism, Ventilation-Perfusion
Distribution.
