GLANDS IN HEALTH AND DISEASE 



Of what value are the sugar and the adrenaline 

 that are poured into the blood during emotional 

 excitement? We have already indicated the an- 

 swer in several portions of the book. Let Professor 

 Cannon speak. "The adrenaline plays an essential 

 r61e in calling forth stored carbohydrate from the 

 liver, thus flooding the blood with sugar. . . . 

 Since the fear emotion and the anger emotion are, 

 in wild life, likely to be followed by activities (run- 

 ning or fighting) which require contraction of 

 great muscular masses in supreme and prolonged 

 struggle, a mobilization of sugar in the blood might 

 be of signal service to the laboring muscles. . . . 

 Adrenaline helps in distributing the blood to the 

 heart, lungs, central nervous system and limbs, 

 while taking it away from the inhibited organs of 

 the abdomen; it quickly abolishes the effects of 

 muscular fatigue; and it renders the blood more 

 readily coagulable. These remarkable facts are, 

 furthermore, associated with some of the most 

 primitive experiences in the life of the higher or- 

 ganisms, experiences common to all, both man and 

 beast the elemental experiences of pain and fear 

 and rage that come suddenly in critical emergen- 

 cies." 



In connection with these investigations, Cannon 

 discusses and connects the excitements and ener- 

 gies of competitive sport; the frenzy and endurance 



