Milieu Intérieur = Inner Middle

[www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]


In the early 1800s, Darwin’s Theory of Evolution combined with the recognition that the body chemistries of many disparate species were remarkably similar led Claude Bernard to develop his theory of the Milieu Intérieur: “The constancy of the internal environment is the condition of a free and independent existence” (3). By this, he meant that the ability of our ancestor organisms to leave the oceans required that they develop the ability to “carry the ocean with them” in the form of an internal ocean, bathing their cells constantly in fluids that resemble the very seas from which they evolved.

Maintenance of the internal milieu was first called the “wisdom of the body” by Starling (6), who recognized that organisms must maintain the constancy of this internal ocean despite great fluctuations in diet, fluid intake, and other environmental conditions. The term homeostasis was later coined by behaviorist Walter Cannon to describe the physiologic processes that, in aggregate, maintain the constancy of the internal chemistries, as well as BP, body temperature, and energy balance (7).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/06/2022 12:34AM by Panchito.