NOVEMBEE 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



699 



admirable material gathered by Dr. Crile and 

 his fellow workers. Much of this is put in 

 fresh and interesting form, but many of the 

 inferences and conclusions based on the facts 

 appear at best quite imperfectly substantiated, 

 and the reader more than once feels the ab- 

 sence of that logical sobriety and reserve which 

 gives Dr. Cannon's book so scientifically satis- 

 factory an atmosphere. Perhaps the most sig- 

 nificant facts cited by Dr. Crile are connected 

 with his brilliant surgical experiments on 

 anesthetics and particularly on the use of 

 cocaine to block spinal cord conduction. 



In the opening essay on phylogenetic asso- 

 ciation in medical problems, the main doctrine 

 presented is that racial history has determined 

 the kind of responses made to injurious and 

 threatening stimuli, most of them expressed 

 in emotional activities, and that these resemble 

 in their cerebral cortical consequences the 

 effects of ordinary surgical shock. The latter 

 is found productive of brain injury in ether 

 anesthetization, despite the painlessness of 

 operations under these circumstances; in less 

 degree with nitrous oxide, and to all intents 

 and purposes not at aU with his own anoci- 

 association methods of cocaine injection in 

 the spinal cord. Many side issues are touched 

 upon, for example, the phylogenetic history of 

 the struggle between bacteria and their hosts, 

 the history of fear as phylogenetic struggle, 

 etc. 



Then follows an address on phylogenetic 

 association in relation to emotion, presenting a 

 doctrine of essentially Darwinian character. 

 Emotion is a vestige of an old and formerly 

 useful act now partially or wholly inhibited 

 and aborted. The author comments sugges- 

 tively on the alleged fact that animals which 

 have no natural weapons for attack experience 

 neither fear nor anger, while animals which 

 have weapons of attack express anger partic- 

 ularly by energizing the muscles used in attack. 



The essay on pain, laughter and crying again 

 evinces either lack of familiarity with, or pro- 

 found distrust of, the extensive psychological 

 literature dealing with the second phenomenon 

 at least. The doctrine of the protective char- 

 acter of these acts is further developed, and 



pain is identified as a motor phenomenon with 

 the repeated discharge of brain cells; crying 

 and laughter furnish drainage for dammed up 

 excitation not otherwise conveniently dis- 



The paper entitled " The Eelation between 

 the Physical State of Brain Cells and Brain 

 Functions " is an exposition of the doctrine 

 that the cortical cells show most injury in all 

 forms of organic disorder involving the higher 

 mental functions. The essay on the " Mechan- 

 istic View of Psychology " has already been 

 referred to. 



The essay on the " Mechanistic Theory of 

 Disease " formulates a conception of organic 

 processes which, so far as the reviewer can 

 detect, is substantially identical with that 

 offered by Descartes in 1664. 



An address on the " Kinetic System " is a 

 long and rather loosely organized discussion 

 of the thesis that " there is in the body a 

 system evolved primarily for the transforma- 

 tion of latent energy into motion and into heat. 

 This system I propose to designate ' the kinetic 

 system.' "^ The principal organs of this sys- 

 tem are the brain, the thyroid, the adrenals, 

 the liver and the muscles. " The brain is the 

 great central battery which drives the body; 

 the thyroid governs the conditions favoring 

 tissue oxidation ; the adrenals govern immedi- 

 ate oxidation processes; the liver fabricates 

 and stores glycogen; and the muscles are the 

 great converters of latent energy into heat and 

 motion." The essay is devoted to a citation of 

 evidence from various sources to substantiate 

 these conceptions, with the constant context 

 that the adaptation of animals to environment 

 involves transformations of energy, in which 

 the organs named are the all important factors. 



The final address on alkalescence, acidity and 

 anesthesia is a defense of the doctrine that life 

 depends on the maintenance of normal poten- 

 tial alkalinity and that anesthesia is primarily 

 a function of increasing the acidity of the 

 organism. 



The volume as a whole suggests an intelli- 

 gence of unusual originality and force, some- 

 what hurriedly and with undue disregard of 



3 P. 174. 



