240 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



and infections we may have a key to the cause of 

 Bright 's disease. We have shown by experiment that 

 in frightened rabbits, enraged cats and traumatized 

 dogs the kinetic system can be driven at such a rate of 

 speed that the organism is unequal to the task of 

 neutralizing the too rapidly -formed acid by-products 

 so that they can be eliminated without injury to the 

 kidneys. In addition, we have shown that when the 

 activity of the brain has been depressed by morphia 

 the rate of transformation of energy is decreased, and 

 the production of acid by-products correspondingly 

 lessened. If, as seems probable, the adrenals and the 

 liver are the most important agents by which the re- 

 duction of acid by-products is accomplished, then an 

 habitual failure of these organs to perform this function 

 might lead to an accumulation of harmful compounds, 

 which would directly facilitate tissue degeneration in 

 the kidneys, thus causing nephritis. In Blight's dis- 

 ease hyperplasia of the adrenal glands is frequently 

 seen. 



Note on Diabetes 



The more powerful excitants of the kinetic system 

 cause an increased output of adrenin, which in turn 

 causes the mobilization of the glycogen stored in the 

 liver so that among other results of excessive kinetic 

 activation, glycosuria is produced. While glycosuria is 

 not diabetes, it may represent a step toward this disease, 

 and one would expect, therefore, that the kinetic drive 

 which in one individual causes a lesion of the thyroid, 

 in another of the brain and in another of the adrenals, 

 might in others produce diabetes. That this is so is 



