This book deals with energetics of transport processes, largely expressed in terms of the thermodynamics of irreversible pro cesses. Since at the present time too little is known about the molecular mechanism of transport, the present treatment is based largely on hypothetical models. Care has been taken, however, to define the crucial features of these models as generally as pos sible, so that the equations do not depend too much on hypotheti cal details. Accordingly, most equations, though developed on the basis of a mobile carrier (ferryboat) model, should apply equally to a conformational...

The material of this volume was originally planned to be incorporated in the preceding monograph Mechanics and Energetics of Biological Transport. A separate and coherent treatment ofthe variety of bioelectrical phenomena was considered preferable, mainly for didactic reasons. Usually, the biologist has to gather the principles of bioelectricity he needs from different sources and on different levels. The present book intends to provide these principles in a more uniform context and in a form adjusted to the problems of a biol ogist, rather than of a physicist or electrical engineer. The main...