The Living Machine 325 



interchangeable physical values, the game of health will be 

 more skilfully played f"^^ 



Not only may poisons, emotion and fatigue induce the 

 kinetic drive, but surgical shock, while the patient is an- 

 esthetized, coupled with the terror of the knife before the 

 operation, are also powerfidly inducing causes. While the 

 jjatient may be entirely unconscious during the operation, 

 there is nevertheless a great drain upon tlie nervous system 

 induced by the action of the knife. To overcome these as 

 much as possible Doctor Crile takes every ])ains to render the 

 patient mentally at ease before the operation and block the 

 kinetic drive by the use of morphin and by local anesthesia. 

 Doctor Crile's theory and this operative method are gen- 

 erally known as that of "anoci-association," or the pre- 

 vention of the exhaustion of nervous energy through opera- 

 tive shock. Experiments upon which it is based have led 

 him to many other discoveries in the field of operative sur- 

 gery, which have rendered his name famous, but this brief 

 sketch must suffice as an illustration of the automatic and 

 mechanical operation of the human machine. 



One of the most striking examples of the role of hormones 

 or internal secretions is the action of the sex glands in con- 

 trolling both body form and mental activity. The physical 

 and mental changes occurring in both boj^s and girls at the 

 time of puberty are too well known to require even passing 

 mention here, while the dependence on the proper function- 

 ing of the sex glands of the secondary sexual characters, such 

 as the horns of the deer, the comb and feathering of the 

 cock, the size of the stallion, and innumerable others, is equally 

 familiar to everyone. Horses and cattle are castrated to ren- 

 der them docile and serviceable as draft animals, and the 

 cock is castrated in order that he may take on more flesh and 

 become a welcome member of our dinner parties. A curious 

 case is that of the race of poultry known as sebrights where 

 the male goes masquerading in female attire, while the fe- 

 male wears the habit of the male. Castration of either sex 

 of these chickens results curiously enough in their adoption 

 of their proper garb, either male or female. 



We are accustomed to think of the control of mind over 

 matter and to regard the processes of thought as transcend- 

 ing the bounds of the purely material universe, and yet where 

 could we have a more beautiful example of the chemical (and 

 therefore purely material) control of living processes, men- 

 tal as well as physical, tlian in the case of the hormones or 

 internal secretions of the animal body? 



"Crile, "Journal of the Aiuerican Medical Association," LXV, p. 

 213 2. 



