214 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



or more of these causes. It is known that exophthal- 

 mic goiter may follow in the wake of an unfortunate 

 love affair ; of a long strain of anxiety in connection 

 with the illness of a relative ; of overwork and worry ; 

 and that it may result from acute or chronic infection 

 or from intestinal auto-intoxication. It is known that 

 chronic intestinal stasis, with the resultant absorption 

 of toxins, may cause neurasthenia, goiter or cardio- 

 vascular disease. 



Not only are the positive effects of organic activity, 

 as seen in disease, explained by the kinetic theory, but 

 the action of certain forms of treatment, by which 

 the organic effects of intense kinetic activation are 

 modified or prevented, may be explained on the same 

 basis. These forms of treatment reduce the activity 

 of the kinetic mechanism as a whole by limiting the 

 activity of some one link in the kinetic chain, thus 

 establishing a condition of inertia or negation to re- 

 sponse which is eminently conservative of energy and 

 restorative in effect. Thus traumatic shock can be mini- 

 mized or prevented by blocking the nerves between the 

 brain and the field of operation by local anesthesia, thus 

 preventing the activation of the brain by harmful trau- 

 matic stimuli. In like manner, by depressing brain ac- 

 tivity, deep morphinization minimizes or prevents toxic 

 shock and the systemic phenomena of acute infections. 

 This principle accounts for the fact that exophthalmic 

 goiter, one of the principal kinetic diseases, is modified 

 or cured by lessening the activity of the thyroid gland, 

 by the ligation of one or more blood vessels of the 

 gland, or by the excision of a lobe, by severing the 

 sympathetic nerve supply to the gland, or, without 



