Century-old notions on and formulations of the principle of external respiration control are discussed. The development of the main views on the mechanisms of action of individual nervous structures involved in respiratory control and their contributions is analyzed. A generalized scheme of the respiratory system control is proposed, according to which this autonomic and somatic system is composed of strictly defined afferent, central, and efferent components and is an open, multiextremal, adaptive, self-learning system based on a hierarchical principle. Ultimately, under any conditions of the vital activity of the body, the main regulator of the system (the respiratory center) optimally performs both deviation and perturbation control.