264 CRILE— THE KINETIC SYSTEM, [April 22, 



purposes of escaping, of fighting, of pursuing; or 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 func- 

 tions 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 suprarenals, 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 suprarenals 

 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, increased func- 

 tional activity ; and no active principle derived from the kidney, the 

 liver, the stomach, the pancreas, the hypophysis, the parathyroid, 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 brain or the 

 muscles, or by the injection of adrenalin or thyroid extract. Then, 

 too, when the brain, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the liver or the 

 muscles are eliminated, the power of the body to convert latent into 

 kinetic energy is impaired or lost. I shall ofifer evidence tending to 

 show that an excess of either internal or external environmental 

 stimuli may modify one or more organs of the kinetic system, and 

 that this modification may cause certain diseases. For example, — 



