Hole’s Essentials of Human Anatomy & Physiology 10th Edition

Book Preface

A Note from John W. Hole, Jr.

When I prepared the first edition of Essentials of Human Anatomy and Physiology, a little more than a quarter of a century ago, I had been teaching the subject in a one semester course for about a dozen years, primarily to students in the nursing program of Rio Hondo College in Whittier, California. I had used several of the available textbooks and had found them in various ways to be unsatisfactory for our needs. As most teachers know, the best way to stimulate student learning is to somehow capture their interest in the subject matter. So when the opportunity arose to prepare a textbook to support a single semester program, I was pleased to give it a try and create a book that would meet the needs of my particular students, who as a group had minimal backgrounds in the physical and biological sciences. With the help and encouragement of members of the staff of the nursing department at Rio Hondo College, some of my former students, and a group of teaching consultants, each of whom provided many valuable suggestions during the preparation of the manuscript, I tried to design a textbook that was limited in scope to the essential anatomy and physiology material that my students needed in an accurate, interesting, and readable manner.

I am personally gratified that the textbook has found its place in many other classrooms over the years, and I am pleased to congratulate the present authors, who have continued to maintain the essential fl avor of the book and have kept its contents up-to-date as well as adding many new, exciting, and attractive features to the presentation.

John W. Hole, Jr.