90 CRILE— PHYLOGENETIC ASSOCIATION [April 2.-. 



addition the entire field of operation is blocked by local anesthesia 

 so that the associational centres are not awakened, the patient passes 

 through the operation unscathed. 



The phylogenetic origin of fear is injury, hence injury and fear 

 cause the same phenomena — psychic shock is the same in quality and 

 in its phenomena as traumatic shock. The perception of danger by 

 the special senses as the sound of the opening gun of a battle, the 

 sight of a venomous snake, cause the same effects upon the entire 

 body and are phylogenetically the same- as operations under anes- 

 thesia or a physical combat in that they all drive the motor mech- 

 anism. The use of local anesthetics in the operative field prevents 

 the injury currents from reaching the brain and there integrating 

 the entire body for a self-defensive struggle, though a part of the 

 brain is asleep and the muscles paralyzed, is the same as the inter- 

 ception of the terrifying sound of the gun, or the sight of the dan- 

 gerous reptile, because it prevents the stimulation of the motor 

 mechanism. From both the negative and positive side we find abun- 

 dant evidence which forces us to believe that the emotions are primi- 

 tive instinctive reactions representing ancestral acts which utilize 

 the complicated motor mechanism which has arisen through the 

 forces of evolution in establishing beings best suited for their adapta- 

 tion to their environment and for procreation. 



The mechanism by which the motor acts are performed, and the 

 mechanism by which the emotions are expressed are one and the 

 same. These acts in their infinite complexity are performed by 

 association, i. e., phylogenetic association. When our progenitors 

 came in contact with excitation in their environment, action ensued 

 then and there. There was much action — little restraint or emotion. 

 Civilized man is really in auto-captivity. He is subjected to in- 

 numerable stimulations, but custom and convention frequently pre- 

 vent physical action. When these stimulations are sufficiently strong 

 but no action ensues, the reaction constitutes an emotion. A phylo- 

 genetic fight is anger ; a phylogenetic flight is fear ; a phylogenetic 

 copulation is sexual love, and so one finds in this conception an 

 underlying principle which may be the key to an understanding of 

 the emotions and of certain diseases. 



Lakeside Hospital, 

 Cleveland, O. 



