490 
priated and stored in the organism are 
released to produce heat and motion.”’ 
He then undertakes to find the mechan- 
ism that thus transforms energy. A 
long series of experiments, which cannot 
be described here, leads to the conclusion 
that ‘“‘only the brain, the thyroid, the 
adrenals, the liver and the muscles are 
chiefly concerned in the transformation 
of energy.” ‘They merit therefore the 
distinction of being termed the kinetic 
system.” 
This brings him to his particular field 
of medicine and surgery—the field 
which he primarily wanted to investi- 
gate, for he felt that medical science 
was falling behind, because of its failure 
to adopt an evolutionary outlook. 
“The postulate that there is in the 
body a kinetic system, consisting mainly 
of certain organs, which are driven by 
the stimuli of the outer and inner 
environments of the body, throws light 
upon many problems of the medical 
clinic, as well as of human relations. 
According to this postulate, the body 
is a mechanism integrated and driven 
by the brain in response to adequate 
stimuli—contact, distance and chemical 
—arising within and without the body. 
The phenomena of health and disease 
are manifestations of the activity of this 
system. When the body mechanism is 
driven at a moderate speed by an 
environment to which the capacity of 
the body is perfectly adjusted, the 
result may be compared to that following 
the driving of any other machine by a 
careful and considerate master—a maxi- 
mum of work done, with a minimum of 
wear and tear on the parts. When fora 
short period of time or continuously the 
driving is at an excessive pace, there 
results a sudden or a gradual break- 
down, involving always the weakest 
link in the mechanism.”’ 
The observation that the degenerative 
diseases to which man is subject are not 
the same, in general, as those which 
attack woman, leads to an interesting 
speculation on the difference in nature 
of the kinetic systems of the two sexes. 
“The adrenals preéminently control 
the meckanism for increasing motor 
efficiency during short periods of in- 
creased transformation of energy. The 
The Journal of Heredity 
adrenals are the organs most heavily 
involved in muscular work. On the 
other hand, the thyroid controls the 
mechanism which regulates energy 
transformation during longer periods of 
increased activation. It is known that 
the thyroid enlarges during sustained 
periods of increased activity, particu- 
larly during infection, adolescence and 
pregnancy. Throughout the ages of 
evolution, the male has been chiefly 
the motor member of the family; he has 
been, not exclusively, but for the most 
part, the hunter, the fighter, the searcher 
for food—activities which have required 
increased transformation of energy dur- 
ing short periods of time, with propor- 
tionally heavy demands upon the acid- 
neutralizing mechanism of the body. 
The female, on the other hand, has 
borne the burden of procreation and of 
the lighter but more constant domestic 
tasks, and has been correspondingly 
dependent upon the mechanism for 
sustained physiologic efficiency, repre- 
sented chiefly by the thyroid. This age- 
long differentiation may conceivably 
have led to a corresponding differentia- 
tion in the physiologic expression of 
emotion, with a corresponding differ- 
entiation in the diseases caused by 
emotion. According to a striking state- 
ment made by Loeb, ‘Man and woman 
are, physiologically, different species.’”’ 
Dr. Crile goes on to illustrate the 
all-inclusiveness of the mechanistic 
philosophy. 
“Tf emotion, particularly fear, causes 
such far-reaching metabolic disturb- 
ances, why does it not produce even 
more baleful consequences? Indeed, 
why has not emotion wrecked the race? 
Is it because there are now certain 
agencies at work in society, which hold 
in check this harmful tendency, as 
immunity and phagocytosis protect 
the organism against bacterial menace, 
and as the custom of wearing clothes 
and building houses is a_ protection 
from the dangers of cold and wind and 
hostile strangers? Has there been 
evolved in man some counter-adaptation 
which provides a partial protection 
against self-destruction from the too- 
long-retained motor adaptation which 
we term ‘emotion?’ 
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