MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



cholera, an overdose of strychnin, a Marathon race, 

 a grilling fight, foreign proteins, or anaphylaxis, there 

 results a condition of acute exhaustion, clinically 

 recognized as shock, and designated, according to 

 its precipitating cause : traumatic shock, psychic shock, 

 toxic shock, infection shock, anaphylactic shock, drug 

 shock, etc. Whatever the cause, the essential pathology 

 of shock is identical as is the immediate clinical pic- 

 ture, and the subsequent slow, halting recovery of 

 strength and function. 



If instead of a single intense overwhelming activa- 

 tion there is a continuous abnormal activation of the 

 kinetic system by one or more stimuli, there is pro- 

 duced a condition equivalent to chronic shock, resulting 

 in either a diminished or an excessive activity of some 

 one or more organs. According to the particular organs 

 involved, and the manner of their involvement, this 

 condition may be clinically designated : nervous ex- 

 haustion, neurasthenia, insanity, Graves' disease, myx- 

 cedema, goiter, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Bright's 

 disease, apoplexy or acute acidosis. In the pathology 

 of all these diseases we may find facts which indi- 

 cate that they are closely similar in origin, course and 

 treatment. 



If, as rarely happens, no part of the organism is 

 weakened or broken by the strain of continuous exces- 

 sive activation, the unusual spectacle of excessive 

 energy transformation is presented in a human mech- 

 anism which outstrips its fellows and crushes its com- 

 petitors one of the most amazing sights that life 

 has to offer. Napoleon presented such a spectacle. 

 We may well suppose that Caesar and Alexander 



