title: The breath of life: an essay on the earliest history of respiration: part I.
abstract: The association of life with breath is as old as man himself. The evolution of concepts concerning the relationship of one to the other begins in the supernatural, and winds through mysticism, religion and philosophy to become the central theme, together with the problem of the mammalian innate heat, in the history of biology and physiology. For the present we shall look only at how the mind of man first began to grapple with this fundamental problem; in doing so, we shall see how he took his first tentative steps towards a scientific understanding of himself, the microcosm, and the universe, or macrocosm.
authors.affiliation: University of New South Wales School of Medicine, Prince Henry Hospital, Sydney.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Gandevia