The Origin and Nature of Emotions, George W. Crile [classic novels to read .TXT] 📗

appear in persons under emotional strain. It is most common in those races which are especially emotional in character, so we are not surprised to find it especially prevalent among Jews. So common is this particular result of prolonged emotion that some one has said, “When the stocks go down in New York, diabetes goes up.”

Nephritis, also, may result from emotional stress, because of the strain put upon the kidneys by the unconsumed activating substances.

The increased heart action and the presence of these activating secretions may cause myocarditis and heart degeneration.

Claudication also may result from the impaired circulation.

 

The emotions may cause an inhibition of the digestive secretions and of intestinal peristalsis. This means that the digestive processes are arrested, that putrefaction and autointoxication will result, and that still further strain will thus be put upon the organs of elimination. Who has not observed in himself and in others when under the influence of fear, anger, jealousy, or grief that the digestive processes and general well-being are rapidly and materially altered; while as tranquillity, peace, and happiness return the physical state improves accordingly?

 

Dentists testify that as a result of continued strong emotion the character of the saliva changes, pyorrhea develops, and the teeth decay rapidly.

Every one knows that strong emotion may cause the hair to fall out and to become prematurely gray.

 

As to the most important organ of all—the brain—every one is conscious of its impaired efficiency under emotional strain, and laboratory researches show that the deficiency is accounted for by actual cell deterioration; so the individual who day by day is under heavy emotional strain finds himself losing strength slowly—

especially do his friends note it. By summation of stimuli his threshold becomes lowered until stimuli, which under normal conditions would be of no effect, produce undue responses.

“The grasshopper becomes a burden,” and prolonged rest and change of environmental conditions are necessary for restoration.

 

If in a long emotional strain the brain is beaten down; if the number of “low-efficiency” cells increases, the driving power of the brain is correspondingly lessened and therefore the various organs of the body may escape through the very inefficiency of the brain to produce in them forced activity.

On the other hand, if the brain remains vigorous, the kidneys may take the strain and break down; if the kidneys do not break, the blood-vessels may harden; if the blood-vessels are not affected, the thyroid may become hyperplastic and produce Graves’ disease; if the thyroid escapes, diabetes may develop; while if the iron constitution of the mechanism can successfully bear the strain in all its parts, then the individual will break his competitors, and their mechanisms will suffer in the struggle.

 

This whole train of deleterious results of body activation without action may be best observed and studied in that most emotional of diseases—exophthalmic goiter. In this disease the constantly stimulated distance ceptors dispossess the contact ceptors from the common path, and drive the motor mechanism to its own destruction, and the patient has the appearance of a person in great terror, or of a runner approaching the end of a Marathon race (Figs. 16

and 48 to 54).

 

Exophthalmic goiter may result from long emotional or mental stress in those cases in which the thyroid takes the brunt of the strain upon the mechanism. As adrenalin increases blood-pressure, so thyroid secretion increases brain activity, and increased brain activity in turn causes an increased activation of the motor mechanism as a whole.

 

We know that a deficiency or lack of thyroid secretion will inhibit sexual emotion and conception, will produce stupidity and inertia; will diminish vitality. On the other hand, excessive thyroid secretion drives the entire mechanism at top speed; the emotions are intensified; the skin becomes soft and moist, the eyes are brilliant and staring; the limbs tremble; the heart pounds loudly and its pulsations often are visible; the respiration is rapid; the stimulation of the fear mechanism causes the eyes to protrude (Fig. 16); the temperature mounts at every slight provoca-tion and may reach the incredible height of 110‘0 even. In time, the entire organism is destroyed—

literally consumed—by the concentration of dynamic energy.

It is interesting to note that in these patients emotion gains complete possession of the final common path; they are wild and delirious—

but they never have pain.

 

All the diseases caused by excessive motor activity may be called kinetic diseases. Against the conditions in life which produce them man reacts in various ways. He intro-

 

{illust. caption = FIG. 51.—CROSS-COUNTRY RACE. Winner of six-mile cross-country race showing typical expression of exhaustion.

(Copyright by Underwood and Underwood, N. Y.) duces restful variety into his life by hunting and fishing; by playing golf and tennis; by horseback riding; by cultivating hobbies which effectually.

turn the current of his thoughts{illust. caption = FIG. 52.—{A B

and C} from the consuming stress and strain of his business or professional life. These diversions are all rational attempts to relieve tension by self-preservative reactions.

For the same reason man attempts to relieve the strain of contention with his fellow-man by unions, trusts, corporations.

In spite of all efforts, however, many constitutions are still broken daily in the fierce conflicts of competition.

We know how often the overdriven individual endeavors to minimize the activities of his motor mechanism by the use of agents which diminish brain activity, such as alcohol, tobacco, and various narcotics.

Occasionally also, some person, who can find no respite from his own relentless energies, seeks relief in oblivion by suicide.

 

Most fortunately, two fundamental instincts—self-preservation and the propagation of the species—act powerfully to prevent this last fatal result, and instead the harassed individual seeks from others the aid which is lacking within himself.

He may turn to the priest who seeks and often secures the final common path for faith in an over-ruling Providence, a faith which in many incontrovertible instances has proved sufficient in very truth to move mountains of lesser stimuli; or he turns to a physician, who too often treats the final outcome of the hyperactivity only.

The physician who accepts the theory of the kinetic diseases, however, will not only repair as far as he may the lesions caused by the disordered and forced activities, but will, by compelling and forceful suggestion, secure the final common path for right conduct, that is, for a self-and species-preservative course of action as opposed to wrong conduct-a self-and species-destructive course of action.

 

By forcefully imparting to his patient the knowledge of the far-reaching effects of protracted emotional strain, of overwork, and of worry, the physician will automatically raise his threshold to the damaging activating stimuli which have produced the evil results.

Even though some parts of his organism may have been permanently disabled, a patient thus protected may yet rise to a plane of poise and efficiency far above that of his uncontrolled fellows.

 

In extreme cases it does not seem unreasonable to believe that the uncontrolled patient might be rescued by the same principle which has proved effective in saving patients from the emotional and traumatic strain of surgical operations—the principle of anoci-association. That is, by disconnecting one or more of the activating organs from the brain, the motor mechanism might be saved from its self-destruction.

 

Under this hypothesis, that man in disease, as in health, is the product of his phylogeny as well as of ontogeny, the sphere of the physician’s activities takes on new aspects of far-reaching and inspiring significance. Prognosis will become definite in proportion to the physician’s knowledge not only of the ontogenetic history of the individual patient, but also of the phylogenetic history of the race.

As that knowledge increases, as he appreciates more and more keenly the significance of environment in its effect upon individual development, in so far will the physician be in a position to contribute mightily to the welfare of the race.

 

THE KINETIC SYSTEM[*]

 

[*] Address delivered before the New York State Medical Society, April 28, 1914, to which has been added a further note regarding studies of hydrogen ion concentration in the blood.

 

In this paper I formulate a theory which I hope will harmonize a large number of clinical and experimental data, supply an interpretation of certain diseases, and show by what means many diverse causes produce the same end effects.

 

Even should the theory prove ultimately to be true, it will in the mean time doubtless be subjected to many alterations. The specialized laboratory worker will, at first, fail to see the broader clinical view, and the trained clinician may hesitate to accept the laboratory findings.

Our viewpoint has been gained from a consideration of both lines of evidence on rather a large scale.

 

The responsibility for the kinetic theory is assumed by myself, while the responsibility for the experimental data is shared fully by my associates, Dr. J. B. Austin, Dr. F. W. Hitchings, Dr. H. G. Sloan, and Dr. M. L. Menten.[t]

 

[t] From H. K. Cushing Laboratory of Experimental Medicine, Western Reserve University, Cleveland.

Introduction

The self-preservation of man and kindred animals is effected through mechanisms which transform latent energy into kinetic energy to accomplish adaptive ends. Man appropriates from environment the energy he requires in the form of crude food which is refined by the digestive system; oxygen is taken to the blood and carbon dioxid is taken from the blood by the respiratory system; to and from the myriads of working cells of the body, food and oxygen and waste are carried by the circulatory system; the body is cleared of waste by the urinary system; procreation is accomplished through the genital system; but none of these systems was evolved primarily for the purpose of transforming potential energy into kinetic energy for specific ends. Each system transforms such amounts of potential into kinetic energy as are required to perform its specific work; but no one of them transforms latent into kinetic energy for the purposes of escaping, fighting, pursuing, nor for combating infection.

The stomach, the kidneys, the lungs, the heart strike no physical blow-their role is to do certain work to the end that the blow may be struck by another system evolved for that purpose. I propose to offer evidence that there is in the body a system evolved primarily for the transformation of latent energy into motion and into heat.

This system I propose to designate “The Kinetic System.”

 

The kinetic system does not directly circulate the blood, nor does it exchange oxygen and carbon dioxid; nor does it perform the functions of digestion, urinary elimination, and procreation; but though the kinetic system does not directly perform these functions, it does play indirectly an important role in each, just as the kinetic system itself is aided indirectly by the other systems.

 

The principal organs which comprise the kinetic system are the brain, the thyroid, the adrenals, the liver, and the muscles.

The brain is the great central battery which drives the body; the thyroid governs the conditions favoring tissue oxidation; the adrenals govern immediate oxidation processes; the liver fabricates and stores glycogen; and the muscles are the great converters of latent energy into heat and motion.

 

Adrenalin alone, thyroid extract alone, brain activity alone, and muscular activity alone are capable of causing the body temperature to rise above the normal. The functional activity of no other gland of the body alone, and the secretion of no other gland alone, can cause a comparable rise in body temperature—that is, neither increased functional activity nor any active principle derived from the kidney, the liver, the stomach, the pancreas, the hypophysis, the parathyroids, the spleen, the intestines, the thymus, the lymphatic glands, or the bones can, per se, cause a rise in the general body temperature comparable to the rise that may be caused by the activity of the