IN response to numerous requests I have brought together into this volume
eight papers which may serve as a supplement to the volumes previously
published[*] and as a preface to monographs now in preparation.
[*] Surgical Shock, 1899; Surgery of the Respiratory System, 1899;
Problems Relating to Surgical Operations, 1901; Blood Pressure
in Surgery, 1903; Hemorrhage and Transfusion, 1909;
Anemia and Resuscitation, 1914; and Anoci-association, 1914
(with Dr. W. E. Lower).
In the first of these addresses, the Ether Day Address, delivered at
the Massachusetts General Hospital in October, 1910, I first
enunciated the Kinetic Theory of Shock, the key to which was found
in laboratory researches and in a study of Darwin's "Expression
of the Emotions in Man and in Animals," whereby the phylogenetic
origin of the emotions was made manifest and the pathologic
identity of surgical and emotional shock was established.
Since 1910 my associates and I have continued our researches through--
(a) Histologic studies of all the organs and tissues of the body;
(b) Estimation of the H-ion concentration of the blood in the emotions
of anger and fear and after the application of many other forms of stimuli;
(c) Functional tests of the adrenals, and (d) Clinical observations.
It would seem that if the striking changes produced by fear
and anger and by physical trauma in the master organ of the body--
the brain--were due to WORK, then we should expect to find
corresponding histologic changes in other organs of the body as well.
We therefore examined every organ and tissue of the bodies of animals
which had been subjected to intense fear and anger and to infection and
to the action of foreign proteins, some animals being killed immediately;
some several hours after the immediate effects of the stimuli had passed;
some after seances of strong emotion had been repeated several
times during a week or longer.
The examination of all the tissues and organs of these animals
showed changes in three organs only, and with few exceptions in all
three of these organs--the brain, the adrenals, and the liver.
The extent of these changes is well shown by the photomicrographs
which illustrate the paper on "The Kinetic System" which is included
in this volume. This paper describes many experiments which show
that the brain, the adrenal, and the liver play together constantly
and that no one of these organs--as far at least as is indicated
by the histologic studies--can act without the co-operation
of the other two.
Another striking fact which has been experimentally established
is that the deterioration of these three organs caused by emotion,
by exertion, and by other causes is largely counteracted,
if not exclusively, during sleep. If animals exhausted by the continued
application of a stimulus are allowed complete rest for a certain
number of hours, _*without sleep_, the characteristic histologic
appearance of exhaustion in the brain, adrenals, and liver is not
altered notably, whereas in animals allowed to sleep for the same
number of hours the histologic changes in these organs are lessened--
in some cases obliterated even.
This significant phenomenon and its relation will be dealt with in
a later monograph.
Many of the arguments and illustrations by which the primary
premises were established are repeated--a few in all--many in
more than one of these addresses. It will be observed, however,
that the APPLICATION of these premises varies, and that their
SIGNIFICANCE broadens progressively.
In the Ether Day Address the phylogenetic key supplied by Darwin was
utilized to formulate the principle that the organism reacts as a unit
to the stimuli of physical injury, of emotion, of infection, etc.
To the study of these reactions (transformations of energy)
the epoch-making work of Sherrington, "The Integrative Action
of the Nervous System," gave an added key by which the dominating
role of the brain was determined. Later the original work
of Cannon on the adrenal glands gave facts, and an experimental
method by which Darwin's phylogenetic theory of the emotions
was further elaborated in other papers, especially in the one
entitled "Phylogenetic Association in Relation to the Emotions,"
read before The American Philosophical Society in April, 1911.
GEORGE W. CRILE. CLEVELAND, OHIO, _February, 1915_.
CONTENTS PAGE PHYLOGENETIC ASSOCIATION IN RELATION TO CERTAIN MEDICAL
PROBLEMS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
PHYLOGENETIC ASSOCIATION IN RELATION TO THE EMOTIONS . . . .
55 PAIN, LAUGHTER, AND CRYING. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
THE RELATION BETWEEN THE PHYSICAL STATE OF THE BRAIN-CELLS AND
BRAIN FUNCTIONS-EXPERIMENTAL AND CLINICAL . . . .111