About the Journal
Indian Journal of Physiology and Allied Sciences
The teaching of Physiology as a basic science at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels started at the University of Calcutta during the first decades of the 20th century, followed by research. The Physiologists (both medical and non-medical) of the country realized the need for further promotion of the subject and set up an independent organization of the physiologists and allied scientists in July 1934 as ‘The Physiological Society of India,’ Within a short period, the society became an all India organization of Physiologists and related scientists. The then outstanding achievement of the society was the introduction of the publication of ‘The Indian Journal of Physiology and Allied Sciences,’ which was published for the first time in January 1947 before India became politically independent.
The editors were N.M.Basu, B.B.Sarkar, and N.N.Das in conjunction with B.Ahmad (Lahore), M.A. Basir (Madras), S.M.Banerjee (Cuttack), S.L.Bhatia (Assam), K.P.Bose (Dacca), W.Burridge (Lucknow), B.Narayan (Patna), R.K.Pal (Calcutta), S.A.Rahaman (Hyderabad, Deccan), K.C.Sen (Bangalore), P.B.Sen (Calcutta), Indrajit Singh (Hyderabad, Sind.)
The first issues contained forty-five (45) pages. They included five original papers and an encouraging letter from Prof. A.V.Hill, the then Secretary of the Royal Society of England and also an honorary member of the Physiological Society of India that ‘the Journal will play a valuable part in encouraging of these sciences in India’. The details of the published five articles are:
| N.N.Das: Effect of cardiac drugs on heart tissue explanted in vitro | 5 |
| N.M.Basu and G.K.Ray: Experimental studies on the Influence of thiamine (vitamin B1 ) on the inflow of phosphates into, and absorption of glucose from, the intestinal canal | 9 |
| B. C. Bose and B. Mukherjee: Observations on the Assay of Prolactin by the crop gland stimulation in Indian pigeons | 27 |
| K. Mukherjee and K.L. Mukherjee: Ascorbic acid content of garden rose hips | 33 |
| N. M. Basu and G.K.Ray: Influence of vitamin B1 on detoxication by Glucuronic acid produced in Liver | 32 |
It was published and printed by Nibaran Chandra Das, Prabasi Press, Calcutta. The journal has been published regularly in January, April, July, and October every year since then.
India celebrated the Golden Jubilee of her independence in 1997 when the Editorial Committee of the Indian Journal Physiology & Allied Sciences also published its ‘Golden Jubilee Issue.’ The purpose of publishing this special issue was to record a landmark event and express the determination to make further progress in the journal's quality in the coming years.
This special Golden Jubilee Issue contains invited orations from some outstanding scientists working in India and abroad with the hope that this issue of great importance would attract the attention of many Physiologists and Allied Scientists worldwide. The contents of the Golden Jubilee issue, 1997 are as follows:
| CONTENTS | Authors | Page |
|---|---|---|
| Role of Cellular Action in the Transcription of Human Parainfluenza Virus type 3: In Vitro Studies with Recombinant Actin | Sanhita Gupta, Bishnu P.De and Amiya Banerjee | 1 |
| The lungs: how they are protected from environmental assault (S. C. Mahalanabis Memorial Lecture,1997) | John Widdicombe | 12 |
| Regulation of chemoreception in the carotid body: A brief review | Sukhamay Lahiri | 21 |
| Maximum oxygen uptake & Anaerobic threshold consequent to chronic smoke exposure in firefighters | Sankar N. Koyal, John G. Mohler, Ralph C. Jung, and Clarence R. Collier | 26 |
| Endogenous inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis | T. Ramasarma | 38 |
| A healthy lifestyle in the elderly | Per-Olof Astrand | 48 |
| Effect of acute ethanol ingestion on serum and liver glycosyl transferases in rats | Uday Saxena, Joan Collins and Sailen Mookerjea | 61 |
| Insulin a potent antithrombotic hormone | Asru K. Sinha | 68 |
| Flow cytometry and its use in studying hormonal control of testicular germ cell transformation and differentiation | N. R. Moudgal and H. Krishnamurthy | 74 |
| Kala-azar: strategies for drug targeting and for new drug development | Tanmoy Mukherjee and Amar Bhaduri | 86 |
In his letter, Prof. Hill also wrote, ‘By setting and maintaining that high standard, Indian Journal of Physiology and Allied Sciences will be able to do a real service both to science and to India.’ To set and maintain the standard of the journal is the ultimate goal of the members of the Editorial Committee, but without the contribution of the workers in this and allied fields, as well as commendable reviewing/ editing of the articles by the reviewers, found urgently important.