CHAPTER XV. Alternative Satisfactions for the Fighting Emotions

ALTERNATIVE SATISFACTIONS FOR THE FIGHTING EMOTIONS

The uniformity of visceral responses when almost any feelings grow very intense, and under such conditions the identity of these responses with those characteristically aroused in the belligerent emotion of anger or rage and its counterpart, fear, offer interesting possibilities of transformation and substitution. This is especially true in the activities of human beings. And because men have devised such terribly ingenious and destructive modes of expressing these feelings in war, an inquiry into the basis for possible substitution seems not out of place.

Support for the Militarist Estimate of the Strength of the Fighting Emotions and Instincts

The business of killing and of avoiding death has been one of the primary interests of living beings throughout their long history on the earth. It is in the highest degree natural that feelings of hostility often burn with fierce intensity, and then, with astonishing suddenness, that all the powers of the body are called into action--for the strength of the feelings and the quickness of the response measure the chances of survival in a struggle where the issue may be life or death. These are the powerful emotions and the deeply ingrained instinctive reactions which invariably precede combat. They are the emotions and instincts that sometimes seize upon individuals in groups and spread like wildfire into larger and larger aggregations of men, until vast populations are shouting and clamoring for war. To whatever extent military plans are successful in devising a vast machine for attack or defense, the energies that make the machine go are found, in the last analysis, in human beings who, when the time for action comes, are animated by these surging elemental tendencies which assume control of their conduct and send them madly into conflict.

The strength of the fighting instinct in man has been one of the main arguments used by the militarists in support of preparation for international strife. They point to the historical fact that even among highly civilized peoples scarcely a decade passes without a kindling of the martial emotions, which explode in actual warfare. Such fighting, they say, is inevitable--the manifestation of “biological law”--and, so long as human nature remains unchanged, decision by battle must be resorted to. They urge, furthermore, that in war and in the preparations for war important physical qualities--sturdiness, hardihood, and strength for valorous deeds--are given peculiarly favorable opportunities for development, and that if these opportunities are lacking, lusty youth will give place to weaklings and mollycoddles. In addition the militarists say that war benefits mankind by its moral effects. Without war nations become effete, their ideals become tarnished, the people sink into self-indulgence, their wills weaken and soften in luxury. War, on the contrary, disciplines character, it sobers men, it teaches them to be brave and patient, it renews a true order of values, and its demand for the supreme sacrifice of life brings forth in thousands an eager response that is the crowning glory of the human spirit. As the inevitable expression of a deep-rooted instinct, therefore, and as a unique means of developing desirable physical and moral qualities, war is claimed by the militarists to be a natural necessity.

The militarist contention that the fighting instinct is firmly fixed in human nature receives strong confirmation in the results of our researches. Survival has been decided by the grim law of mortal conflict, and the mechanism for rendering the body more competent in conflict has been revealed in earlier chapters as extraordinarily perfect and complete. Moreover, the physiological provisions for fierce struggle are found not only in the bodies of lower animals, that must hunt and kill in order to live, but also in human beings. Since this remarkable mechanism is present, and through countless generations has served the fundamentally important purpose of giving momentous aid in the struggle for existence, the militarists might properly argue that, as with other physiological processes, bodily harmony would be promoted by its exercise. Indeed, they might account for the periodic outburst of belligerent feelings by assuming that these natural aptitudes require occasional satisfaction.[*]

*[Footnote: Mr. Graham Wallas has made the interesting suggestion (The Great Society, New York, 1914, p. 66) that nervous strain and restlessness due to “baulked disposition” may result from the absence of circumstances which would call the emotional responses into action. And he cites Aristotle’s theory that pent passions may be released by represented tragedy and by music.]

Growing Opposition to the Fighting Emotions and Instincts as Displayed in War

In spite of the teachings of history that wars have not grown fewer, and in spite of the militarist argument that war is a means of purging mankind of its sordid vices, and renewing instead the noblest virtues, the conclusion that the resort to arms is unavoidable and desirable is nowadays being strongly contested. The militarists show only part of the picture. No large acquaintance with the character of warfare is necessary to prove that when elemental anger, hate and fear prevail, civilized conventions are abandoned and the most savage instincts determine conduct. Homes are looted and burned, women and children are abominably treated, and many innocents are murdered outright or starved to death. No bland argument for the preservation of the manly virtues can palliate such barbarities. Even when fighting men are held within the rules, the devices for killing and injuring are now made so perfect by devilish ingenuity that by the pulling of a trigger one man can in a few seconds mow down scores of his fellow-creatures and send them writhing to agony or death. War has become too horrible; it is conducted on too stupendous a scale of carnage and expenditure; it destroys too many of the treasured achievements of the race; it interferes too greatly with consecrated efforts to benefit all mankind by discovery and invention; it involves too much suffering among peoples not directly concerned in the struggle; it is too vastly at variance with the methods of fair dealing that have been established between man and man; the human family has become too closely knit to allow some of its members to bring upon themselves and all the rest poverty and distress and a long heritage of bitter hatred and resolution to seek revenge.

All these reasons for hostility to war imply a thwarting of strong desires in men--desires for family happiness, devotion to beauty and to scholarship, passion for social justice, hopes of lessening poverty and disease. As was pointed out in the previous chapter, the feeling of hostility has no definite object to awaken it. It is roused when there is opposition to what we ardently wish to get. And because war brings conditions which frustrate many kinds of eagerly sought purposes, war has roused in men a hostility against itself. There is then a war against war, a willingness to fight against monstrous carnage and destruction, that grows in intensity with every war that is waged.

The Desirability of Preserving the Martial Virtues

Although there is increasing opposition to the display of the fighting emotions and instincts in war, nevertheless the admirable moral and physical qualities, claimed by the militarists to be the unique products of war, are too valuable to be lost. As McDougall has indicated, when the life of ideas becomes richer, and the means we take to overcome obstructions to our efforts more refined and complex, the instinct to fight ceases to express itself in its crude natural manner, save when most intensely excited, and becomes rather a source of increased energy of action towards the end set by any other instinct; the energy of its impulses adds itself to and reënforces that of other impulses and so helps us to overcome our difficulties. In this lies its great value for civilized man. A man devoid of the pugnacious instinct would not only be incapable of anger, but would lack this great source of reserve energy which is called into play in most of us by any difficulty in our path.

Thus the very efficiency of a war against war, as well as struggle against other evils that beset civilized society, rests on the preservation and use of aggressive feeling and the instinct to attack. From this point of view the insistence by the militarists that we must accept human nature as we find it, and that the attempt to change it is foolish, seems a more justifiable attitude than that of the pacifists who belittle the fighting qualities and urge that changing them is a relatively simple process. We should not wish them changed. Even if in the war against war a means should be established of securing international justice, and if through coöperative action the decrees of justice were enforced, so that the occasions which would arouse belligerent emotions and instincts were much reduced, there would still remain the need of recognizing their elemental character and their possible usefulness to society. What is needed is not a suppression of these capacities to feel and act, but their diversion into other channels where they may have satisfactory expression.

Moral Substitutes for Warfare

“We must make new energies and hardihoods continue the manliness to which the military mind so faithfully clings. Martial virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedience to command, must still remain the rock upon which states are built.” Thus wrote William James in proposing a “moral equivalent for war.” This, he suggested, should consist of such required service in the hard and difficult occupations as would take the childishness and superciliousness out of our youth and give them soberer ideas and healthier sympathies with their fellow-men. He conceived that by proper direction of its education a people should become as proud of the attainment by the nation of superiority in any ideal respect as it would be if the nation were victorious in war. “The martial type of character,” he declared, “can be bred without war. Strenuous honor and disinterestedness abound elsewhere. Priests and medical men are in a fashion educated to it, and we should all feel some degree of it imperative if we were conscious of our work as an obligatory service to the state. We should be owned, as soldiers are by the army, and our pride would rise accordingly. We could be poor, then, without humiliation, as army officers now are. The only thing needed henceforth is to inflame the civic temper as past history has inflamed the military temper.”

Similar ideas have been expressed by others. It has been pointed out that the great war of mankind is that against pain, disease, poverty and sin; that the real heroes are not those who squander human strength and courage in fighting one another, but those who fight for man against these his eternal foes. War of man against man, in this view, becomes dissension in the ranks, permitting the common enemies to strike their most telling blows.

These moral considerations, however, are apart from the main intent of our discussion. Our earlier inquiry confirmed the belief that the fighting emotions are firmly rooted in our natures, and showed that these emotions are intimately associated with provisions for physical exertion. It is particularly in this aspect of the discussion of substitutes for war that these studies have significance.

Physical Substitutes for Warfare

The idealization of the state and the devotion of service to social welfare, which have been suggested as moral substitutes for military loyalty, leave unanswered the claims of the militarists that in war and in preparations for war opportunities are offered which are peculiarly favorable to the development of important physical qualities--bodily vigor, sturdiness, and ability to withstand all manner of hardships.

In the evidence previously presented, it seems to me there was a suggestion that offers a pertinent alternative to these claims. When the body goes onto what we have called a war footing, the physiological changes that suddenly occur are all adapted to the putting forth of supreme muscular and nervous efforts. That was what primitive battle consisted of, through countless myriads of generations--a fierce physical contest of beast with beast, and of man with man. Such contests, attended as they were by the thrill of unpredictable incidents, and satisfying completely the lust of combat, are to be contrasted with the dull grind in preparation for modern war, the monotonous regularity of subservience, the substitution everywhere of mechanism for muscle, and often the attack on an enemy who lies wholly unseen.[*] As Wallas with nice irony has remarked, “The gods in Valhalla would hardly choose the organization of modern lines of military communication, as they chose the play of sword and spear, to be the most exquisite employment of eternity.”

*[Footnote: Lord Wolseley, while commander-in-chief of the English forces, in 1897, secured sanction for not displaying the regimental colors in battle. “It would be madness and a crime,” he declared, “to order any soldier to carry colors into action in the future. You might quite as well order him to be assassinated. We have had most reluctantly to abandon a practice to which we attached great importance, and which, under past and gone conditions of fighting, was invaluable in keeping alive the regimental spirit upon which our British troops depended so much.” All war has been transformed by the invention of the far-reaching and fate-dealing rifle and automatic gun, with which an enemy kills, whose face is not even seen. War is almost reduced to a mechanical interchange of volleys and salvoes, and to the intermittent fire of rifles and machine guns, with short rushes at the last, in which there is no place for the dignity and grace of the antique battle of the standard. (See London Times, July 31, 1897, p. 12.)

T. F. Millard, the well-known correspondent of the Russo-Japanese War, wrote as follows of the characteristics of present day conflicts: “A large part of modern war is on too great a scale to give much opportunity for individual initiative. Soldiers can rarely tell what is going on in their immediate vicinity. They cannot always see the enemy they are firing at, and where they can see the object of their fire such an important matter as range and even direction cannot be left to them.... Troops are clothed so much alike nowadays that it is very difficult to distinguish friend from foe at five hundred yards, and large bodies of troops rarely get that close to each other in modern war while there is light enough to see clearly.... Battery officers simply see that their guns are handled according to instructions. They regulate the time, speed, objective and range as ordered.... The effects of the fire are observed by officers appointed to that duty, stationed at various parts of the field, often miles and miles apart, and who are in constant communication with the chief of artillery by telephone.” (See Scribner’s Magazine, 1905, xxxvii, pp. 64, 66.)

The testimony of a captain of a German battery engaged against the French and English in 1914, supports the foregoing claims. He is reported as saying: “We shoot over those tree tops yonder in accordance with directions for range and distance which come from somewhere else over a field telephone, but we never see the men at whom we are firing. They fire back without seeing us, and sometimes their shells fall short or go beyond us, and sometimes they fall among us and kill and wound a few of us. Thus it goes on day after day. I have not with my own eyes seen a Frenchman or an Englishman unless he was a prisoner. It is not so much pleasure--fighting like this.” (See Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, December 26, 1914, p. 27.)]

While it is true that physical strength can be developed by any form of hard labor, as, for example, by sawing wood or digging ditches, such labor does not stimulate quickness, alertness, and resourcefulness in bodily action. Nor does it give any occasion for use of the emotional mechanism for reënforcement. If this mechanism, like other physiological arrangements, is present in the body for use--and previous discussion leaves little doubt of that--then as a means of exercising it and, in addition, satisfying the strong instinct for competitive testing of strength and physical skill, some activity more enlivening than monotonous gymnastics and ordered marching is required.

In many respects strenuous athletic rivalries present, better than modern military service, the conditions for which the militarists argue, the conditions for which the body spontaneously prepares when the passion for fighting prevails. As explained in an earlier chapter, in competitive sports the elemental factors are retained--man is again pitted against man, and all the resources of the body are summoned in the eager struggle for victory. And because, under such circumstances, the same physiological alterations occur that occur in anticipation of mortal combat, the belligerent emotions and instincts, so far as their bodily manifestations are concerned, are thereby given complete satisfaction.

The Significance of International Athletic Competitions

For reasons given above, I venture to lay emphasis on a suggestion, which has been made before by others, that the promotion of great international athletic contests, such as the Olympic games, would do for our young men much that is now claimed as peculiar to the values of military discipline. The substitution of athletic rivalries for battle is not unknown. In the Philippine Islands, according to Worcester, there were no athletics before the American occupation. The natives soon learned games from the soldiers. And when the sports reached such development that competition between towns and provinces was possible, they began to arouse the liveliest enthusiasm among the people. The physical development of the participants has been greatly stimulated, the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship, formerly lacking, has sprung into existence in every section of the Islands, and the annual meets between athletic teams from various provinces are recognized as promoting a general and friendly understanding among the different Filipino tribes. The fierce Igarots of Bontoc, once constantly at war with neighboring tribes, now show their prowess not in head-hunting, but in baseball, wrestling, and the tug-of-war.[*]

*[Footnote: It is reported that when these warriors first appeared at the games, each brought his spear, which he drove into the ground beside him, ready for use. As the nature of the new rivalries became known, the spears were left behind.]

Is it unreasonable to expect that what has happened in the Philippine Islands might, by proper education and suggestion, happen elsewhere in the world? Certainly the interest in athletic contests is no slight and transient interest. At the time of a great war we know that news of the games is fully as much demanded as news of the war. Already in the United States, without special stimulation, the number of young men engaged in athletic training is estimated as equal to the number in the standing army. And in England, belief in the efficacy of athletics as a means of promoting hardihood and readiness to face stern hazards has found expression in the phrase that England’s battles have been won on the football fields of Rugby and of Eton. With the further promotion of international contests the influence of competitive sports is likely to increase rather than lessen. Within national boundaries emulation is sure to stimulate extensively such games as will bring forth the best representative athletes that the country can produce. In one of the high-spirited European nations, which made a poor showing at the last Olympic meet, thousands of young men began training for the next meet, under a director imported from the nation that had made the highest records.

Training for athletic contests is quite as likely to enure young men to physical hardship and fatigue, is quite as conducive to the development of bodily vigor, the attainment of alertness and skill and the practice of self-restraint, as is army life with its traditional associations and easy license. It may be urged, however, that an essential element is lacking in all this discussion--the sobering possibility that in war the supreme surrender of life itself may be required. Death for one’s country is indeed glorious. But the argument that being killed is desirable has little to commend it. When the strongest and sturdiest are constantly chosen to be fed to the engines of annihilation, the race is more likely to lose greater values than it gains from the spectacle of self-sacrifice, however perfect that may be. Are there not advantages in the conditions of great athletic rivalries that may compensate for war’s most austere demand? The race of hardy men, to secure which the militarists urge war, is much more likely to result from the honoring and preserving of vigorous men in their vigor than it is from the systematic selection of such men to be destroyed in their youth.

There are other aspects of international games which strongly commend them as an alternative to the pursuit of military discipline. The high standards of honor and fairness in sport; its unfailing revelation of excellence without distinctions of class, wealth, race or color; the ease with which it becomes an expression of the natural feelings of patriotism; the respect which victory and pluckily borne defeat inspire in competitors and spectators alike; the extension of acquaintance and understanding which follows from friendly and magnanimous rivalry among strong men who come together from the ends of the earth--each of these admirable features of athletic contests between nations might be enlarged upon. But, as intimated before, these moral considerations must be left without further mention, as being irrelevant to the physiological processes with which we are dealing.

We are concerned with the question of exercising the fighting instinct and thus assuring the physical welfare of the race. The race must degenerate, the militarists say, if this instinct is not allowed to express itself in war. This declaration we are in a position to deny, for the evidence is perfectly clean-cut that the aggressive instincts, which through æons of racial experience have naturally and spontaneously developed vigor and resourcefulness in the body, are invited by elemental emotions, and that through these emotions energies are released which are highly useful to great physical effort. No stupid routine of drill, or any other deadening procedure, will call these energizing mechanisms into activity. War and the preparations for war nowadays have become too machine-like to serve as the best means of preserving and disciplining these forces. The exhilarating swing and tug and quick thrust of the big limb muscles have largely vanished. Pressing an electric contact or bending the trigger finger is a movement altogether too trifling. If, then, natural feelings must be expressed, if the fighting functions of the body must be exercised, how much better that these satisfactions be found in natural rather than in artificial actions, how much more reasonable that men should struggle for victory in the ancient ways, one against another, body and spirit, as in the great games.

REFERENCES

A LIST OF PUBLISHED RESEARCHES FROM THE PHYSIOLOGICAL LABORATORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY, ON WHICH THE PRESENT ACCOUNT IS BASED.

1. The Influence of Emotional States on the Functions of the Alimentary Canal. By W. B. Cannon. American Journal of the Medical Sciences, 1909, cxxxvii, pp. 480-487.

2. Emotional Stimulation of Adrenal Secretion. By W. B. Cannon and D. de la Paz. American Journal of Physiology, 1911, xxviii, pp. 64-70.

3. The Effects of Asphyxia, Hyperpnœa, and Sensory Stimulation on Adrenal Secretion. By W. B. Cannon and R. G. Hoskins. Ibid., 1911, xxix, pp. 274-279.

4. Emotional Glycosuria. By W. B. Cannon, A. T. Shohl and W. S. Wright. Ibid., 1911, xxix, pp. 280-287.

5. A Consideration of Some Biological Tests for Epinephrin. By R. G. Hoskins. Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 1911, iii, pp. 93-99.

6. The Sthenic Effect of Epinephrin upon Intestine. By R. G. Hoskins. American Journal of Physiology, 1912, xxix, pp. 363-366.

7. An Explanation of Hunger. By W. B. Cannon and A. L. Washburn. Ibid., 1912, xxix, pp. 441-454.

8. A New Colorimetric Method for the Determination of Epinephrin. By O. Folin, W. B. Cannon and W. Denis. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 1913, xiii, pp. 477-483.

9. The Depressor Effect of Adrenalin on Arterial Pressure. By W. B. Cannon and Henry Lyman. American Journal of Physiology, 1913, xxxi, pp. 376-398.

10. The Effect of Adrenal Secretion on Muscular Fatigue. By W. B. Cannon and L. B. Nice. Ibid., 1913, xxxii, pp. 44-60.

11. Fatigue as Affected by Changes of Arterial Pressure. By C. M. Gruber. Ibid., 1913, xxxii, pp. 222-229.

12. The Threshold Stimulus as Affected by Fatigue and Subsequent Rest. By C. M. Gruber. Ibid., 1913, xxxii, pp. 438-449.

13. The Fatigue Threshold as Affected by Adrenalin and by Increased Arterial Pressure. By C. M. Gruber. Ibid., 1914, xxxiii, pp. 335-355.

14. The Emergency Function of the Adrenal Medulla in Pain and the Major Emotions. By W. B. Cannon. Ibid., 1914, xxxiii, pp. 356-372.

15. The Relation of Adrenalin to Curare and Fatigue in Normal and Denervated Muscles. By C. M. Gruber. Ibid., 1914, xxxiv, pp. 89-96.

16. The Graphic Method of Recording Coagulation. By W. B. Cannon and W. L. Mendenhall. Ibid., 1914, xxxiv, pp. 225-231.

17. The Hastening or Retarding of Coagulation by Adrenalin Injections. By W. B. Cannon and Horace Gray. Ibid., 1914, xxxiv, pp. 232-242.

18. The Hastening of Coagulation by Stimulating the Splanchnic Nerves. By W. B. Cannon and W. L. Mendenhall. Ibid., 1914, xxxiv, pp. 243-250.

19. The Hastening of Coagulation in Pain and Emotional Excitement. By W. B. Cannon and W. L. Mendenhall. Ibid., 1914, xxxiv, pp. 251-261.

20. The Interrelations of Emotions as Suggested by Recent Physiological Researches. By W. B. Cannon. American Journal of Psychology, 1914, xxv, pp. 256-282.

INDEX

Adrenal extract: effect of, on muscular contraction, 82.

Adrenal glands: nerve supply of, 37; stimulated in emotion, 52-59, 62-63; stimulated in pain, 59-62, 63; in relation to blood sugar, 77; removal of, causes muscular weakness, 81; secretion of, improves contraction of fatigued muscle, 92; variations in adrenin content of, 171; latent period of, when splanchnics stimulated, 188; amount of secretion from, when splanchnics stimulated, 198; fatigue of, 199; stimulated by asphyxia, 206-208.

Adrenin: secreted by adrenal glands, 36; action of, identical with sympathetic impulses, 37, 64; secretion of, by splanchnic stimulation, 41-43; secreted in emotional excitement, 44, 52-59; method of testing for, in blood, 47-50; secreted in emotion, 52-59, 62-63; disappearance of, from blood, 58; secreted in pain, 59-62, 63; effects of, when injected into body, 64-65; effect of, on distribution of blood in the body, 107; quickly restores fatigued muscle to normal irritability, 119-123; specific in its restorative action, 124-128; as an antidote to muscular metabolites, 129; restores fatigued denervated muscle to normal irritability, 130; point of action of, in muscle, 128-133; antagonistic to curare, 132; induces rapid coagulation of blood, 136, 147 ff.; not the direct cause of rapid coagulation, 156-158; fails to shorten coagulation time in absence of intestines and liver, 157-158; variable amount of, in adrenal glands, 171; emergency functions of, 185 ff.; utility of, in bettering the contraction of fatigued muscle, 194-195; not a check to use of sugar in the body, 197, 199; amount of, secreted when splanchnics stimulated, 198; a condition for increase of blood sugar, 199; stimulates the heart, 191, 201; dilates the bronchioles, 204; secretion of, increased in asphyxia, 206-208.

Amyl nitrite: effect of, on contraction of fatigued muscle, 126.

Anger: associated with action, 188; energizing influence of, 216.

Antagonisms: autonomic, 34; in relation to emotions, 38; between cranial and sympathetic divisions, 268-270; between sacral and sympathetic divisions, 270-272.

Appetite: compared with hunger, 233, 235; operation of, after section of vagus and splanchnic nerves, 240.

Arterial blood pressure: increased in excitement, 95; artificial methods of increasing, 97; influence of different heights of, on fatigue, 97-102; influence of increase of, on fatigue, 97-102; influence of decrease of, on fatigue, 102-104; the “critical region” in decreasing, 104; explanation of effects on fatigued muscle, of varying, 104-106; value of increased, in pain and emotion, 106.

Arteries: innervation of, 26.

Asphyxia: increases adrenal secretion, 206-208; increases sugar in blood, 209.

Athletes: glycosuria of, after games, 75.

Autonomic nervous system: three divisions of, 25; arrangement of sympathetic division of, 26-29; arrangement of cranial and sacral divisions of, 29-30; general functions of cranial division of, 30-32; general functions of sacral division of, 32-34; antagonism between sympathetic and cranial-sacral divisions of, 34-36; identity of action of sympathetic division of, and adrenal secretion, 36-38; antagonisms between emotions expressed in, 268-272.

Behavior: biological explanation of, 2.

Bile: flow of, inhibited by excitement, 13.

Bladder: innervation of, 27, 32; effects of emotions on, 33.

Blood: method of obtaining, for test for adrenin, 45-46; method of testing, for adrenin, 47-50; sugar in, 66, 73-74; distribution of, as affected by adrenin, pain and excitement, 107-108, 200; functions of, 135; rapid coagulation of, by adrenin, 136 ff.; drawing of, for testing coagulation time, 140-142; treatment of, in testing coagulation time, 142-145; faster coagulation of, after subcutaneous injections of adrenin, 147-150, and after intravenous injections, 150-156; oscillations in the rate of coagulation of, 155; rapid coagulation of, not due directly to adrenin, 156-158; rapid coagulation of, not caused by adrenin in absence of liver and intestines, 157-158, and not caused by increase of blood sugar, 159, 170; coagulation of, hastened by splanchnic stimulation, 162-167, but not in absence of adrenal glands, 167-171; possible delay of coagulation of, after stimulation of hepatic nerves, 170; coagulation of, hastened by “painful” stimulation, 172-177; coagulation of, hastened in light anesthesia, 174-177; rapid coagulation of, after excitement, stopped by severing splanchnic nerves, 180-182; utility of increased sugar in, 188-193; distribution of, in pain and excitement, favorable to muscular effort, 201; sugar in, increased by asphyxia, 209; utility of rapid coagulation of, 211.

Bronchioles: dilated by adrenin, 204.

Bulimia: explanation of, 262.

Coagulation, see Blood.

Coagulometer: graphic, 138-147.

Combat: relation of emotion and endurance in, 225-226; nature of ancient, 294.

Constipation: as result of worry and anxiety, 271.

Cortex, cerebral: insensitiveness of, 242.

Cranial autonomic division: functions of, to conserve bodily resources, 30-32, 268; activities of, suppressed by activities of sympathetic division, 268-272.

Curare: action of, antagonized by adrenin, 132.

Dances: relation of excitement and endurance in, 222-224.

Danger: stimulating effect of, 230.

Dervishes: exhibitions of endurance by, 224.

Digestion: interruption of, by strong emotion, 9-12, 13-18, 268-269.

Emotions: surface signs of, 3; favorable to digestive secretions, 4-8; unfavorable to digestive secretions, 9-13; persistence of effects of, on digestive secretions, 12; effects of, on gastric and intestinal contractions, 13-18; in relation to sympathetic division, 36; in relation to adrenal secretion, 44, 52-59, 62-63; increase of blood sugar in, 66, 73; glycosuria in, 70-76; influence of, on distribution of blood in body, 108; faster coagulation of blood in, 177-182, but stopped by cutting splanchnics, 180-182; value of forced respiration in, 203; value of bronchiolar dilation in, 204; relation to action, 215; displayed in a “pattern” response, 218, 282; in relation to exhibitions of power and endurance, 215, 229; antagonisms between cranial and sympathetic, 268-270, and between sacral and sympathetic, 270-272; similarity of visceral changes in strong, 275-279; dependence of, on cerebral cortex, 282-283.

Endurance: feats of, related to great emotion, 217-218; in the excitements of mania and dancing, 222-224; stimulated by music, 228.

Esophagus: contractions of, associated with hunger sensation, 259-260.

Fatigue: of muscle, 84; muscular, lessened by splanchnic stimulation, 89-93; as affected by increase of arterial pressure, 97-102; irritability of muscle in, increased by splanchnic stimulation, 101; explanation of effects of varied arterial pressure on, 104-106; lessens neuro-muscular irritability, 114-117, 120; effect of, on curarized muscle, 132; utility of adrenin in lessening effects of, 194, 195; of adrenal glands, 199; cessation of hunger contractions in, 262.

Fear: anticipatory character of, 186-187; associated with action, 188; explanation of paralyzing effect of, 189; energizing influence of, 216; relation to rage, 275; bodily changes in, like those in rage, 276-277; importance of, as a fighting emotion, 286.

“Fesselungsdiabetes,” 69.

Fever: absence of hunger in, 242, 263.

Fighting emotions: bodily changes in, like those in competitive sports, 219-221, 296; anger and fear as, 285; importance of, 286; satisfactions for, in competitive sports, 301.

Food: effect of sight and smell of, on gastric secretion, 6.

Football: glycosuria in players of, 75; relation of excitement and power in, 219-221.

Frenzy: endurance in, 223, 224.

Ganglia: autonomic, 23.

Gastric glands: turgescence of, not the cause of hunger sensation, 249-250.

Gastric juice: psychic secretion of, 5-8, 11; importance of, for intestinal digestion, 7; flow of, inhibited by excitement, 9-12, and by pain, 19.

Generative organs: innervation of, 32, 33; effects of strong emotions on activities in, 271.

Glycosuria: in pain, 69-70; in emotion, 70-76; after football, 75, 221; after examinations, 76; dependence of, on adrenal glands, 77.

Heart: innervation of, 26, 31; use of sugar by, 191; stimulated by adrenin, 191, 201.

Hunger: compared with appetite, 233, 235; description of, 234-236; theories of, 237; as a general sensation, 237; disappearance of, as time passes, 238-239; when stomach full, 239; may be absent in bodily need, 242-243; temporarily abolished by indigestible materials, 243; quick onset and periodicity of, 244-245; reference of, to stomach region, 245-247; not due to emptiness of stomach, 248; not due to hydrochloric acid in empty stomach, 248; not due to turgid gastric glands, 249-250; as the result of contractions, 251-253; inhibited by swallowing, 254; method of recording gastric contractions in, 255-256; associated with gastric contractions, 256-259, and with esophageal contractions, 259-260; function of, 263-264, 272-275.

Hydrochloric acid: not the cause of hunger sensation, 248.

Intestine: contractions of, inhibited by excitement, 16; innervation of, 27, 31; use of, as test for adrenin in blood, 47-50; contracts when empty, 251-253; contractions of, may originate hunger sensations, 263.

Instincts: relation of, to emotions, 187, 188.

Irritability: increased in fatigued muscle by splanchnic stimulation, 101; neuro-muscular, lessened by fatigue, 114-117, 120; when lowered, restored slowly by rest, 119; when lowered, restored quickly by adrenin, 119-123, 195.

“Jumpers”: exhibition of endurance by, 223.

Mania: endurance in, 222.

Martial virtues: claims for, by militarists, 287; importance of preserving, 290-291; preserved in competitive sports, 297-299.

Metabolites: influence of, on muscular contraction, 104; action of, opposed by adrenin, 129; increase adrenal secretion, 206-208.

Militarists: emphasis of, on strength of fighting instincts, 286-288; claims of, as to values of war, 287; support for claims of, 287.

Muscle: weakness of, after removal of adrenal glands, 81; improved contraction of, after injection of adrenal extract, 82; fatigue of, 84; method of recording fatigue of, 85-86; fatigue of, lessened by splanchnic stimulation, 89-93; contraction of, when fatigued, improved by increased arterial pressure, 97-102; irritability of, when fatigued, increased by splanchnic stimulation, 101; contraction of, when fatigued, lessened by decreased arterial pressure, 102-104; explanation of effects of varied arterial pressure on fatigued, 104-106; irritability of, decreased in fatigue, 114-117, 120; decreased irritability of, slowly restored by rest, 117-118, and quickly restored by adrenin, 119-123; contraction of fatigued denervated, increased by adrenin, 130; point of action of adrenin in, 128-133; use of, in struggle, 189; energy of, from carbonaceous material, 190-193; disappearance of glycogen from, 190; increased efficiency of, with increase of blood sugar, 192-193; utility of adrenin in lessening fatigue of, 194-195; efficiency of, increased by distribution of blood in pain and excitement, 201.

Music: stimulating influence of, 227; influence of martial, 228.

Neurones, autonomic: extensive distribution of sympathetic, 26; arrangement of sympathetic for diffuse action, 28; restricted distribution of cranial and sacral, 29; arrangement for specific action, 30.

Olympic games: as physical substitutes for warfare, 297-298.

Operations: in light anesthesia hasten coagulation of blood, 174-177.

“Ordeal of rice,” 9.

Pain: disturbing effect of, on digestion, 18-19; as occasion for adrenal secretion, 59-62, 63; glycosuria in, 69-70; influence of, on distribution of blood in body, 108; hastens coagulation of blood, 172-177; reflex nature of responses in, 185-187; associated with action, 189; stimulating and depressive effects of, 189.

Pancreatic juice: flow of, inhibited by excitement, 13.

Philippine Islands: substitution of sports for warfare in, 297.

Power: the feeling of, 229.

Psychic secretion: of gastric juice, 5-8, 11; of saliva, 6; dependent on cranial autonomic innervation, 31.

Psychic “tone”: of gastro-intestinal muscles, 13.

Racing: relation of excitement and power in, 221.

Rage: relation of, to fear, 275; transformation of other emotions into, 276; bodily changes in, like those in fear, 276-277; importance of, as a fighting emotion, 286.

Reflexes: “purposive” character of, 185-186.

“Reservoirs of power,” 216.

Respiration: utility of increased, in pain and excitement, 202; value of forced, in lessening distress, 203.

Rest: restores irritability lessened by fatigue, 117-118.

Sacral autonomic division: functions of, in mechanisms for emptying, 32-34; activities of, suppressed by activities of sympathetic division, 270-272.

Saliva: psychic secretion of, 6; importance of, for taste, 6; flow of, inhibited by excitement, 9.

Salivary glands: innervation of, by cranial autonomic, 31.

“Second wind”: explanation of, 210.

Sex: instinct of, suppressed by fear and anger, 271.

“Sham feeding,” 5.

Splanchnic nerves: stimulation of, causes adrenal secretion, 41-43; method of stimulating, 87-88; stimulation of, improves contraction of fatigued muscle, 89; stimulation of, hastens coagulation of blood, 162-167, but not in absence of adrenal glands, 167-171; severance of, stops rapid coagulation following excitement, 180-182; eating after severance of, 240.

Sports: relation of excitement and power in, 219-221, 296; as physical substitutes for warfare, 297-301; moral values of, 300.

Stomach: psychic tonus of, 13; contractions of, inhibited by excitement, 14-15, 17, and by pain, 19; innervated by sympathetic neurones, 27, and by cranial autonomic, 31; reference of hunger sensation to, 245-247; emptiness of, not the cause of hunger, 248; contractions of, when empty, 251-253; method of recording contractions of, 255-256; contractions of, when empty, associated with hunger sensations, 256-259; function of contractions of empty, 263-264.

Strength: feats of, related to great emotion, 217-218, 229.

Sugar: in blood, 66, 73; in urine, 69-76; relation of adrenal glands to, in blood, 77; increase of, in blood, does not hasten clotting, 159, 170; utility of, when increased in blood, 188-193; a source of muscular energy, 191-193; a means of increasing muscular efficiency, 192-193; use of, in body, not checked by adrenin, 197-199.

Swallowing: inhibits hunger sensation, 254.

Sweating: value of, in emotion and pain, 203.

“Sympathetic” autonomic division: extensive distribution of neurones of, 26; arranged for diffuse action, 28; antagonistic to cranial and sacral divisions, 34-36; active in pain and strong emotion, 36; emotions expressed in, opposed to those expressed in cranial and sacral divisions, 268-272; dominance of, temporary, 273.

Threshold stimulus: as measure of irritability, 111; method of determining, 111-114; increased in fatigue, 114-117, 120; when increased, slowly restored by rest, 117-118, and quickly restored by adrenin, 119-123.

Trial by battle: feats of endurance in, 226.

Vagus nerves: severance of, does not abolish appetite, 240-241, and does not abolish hunger contractions of the stomach, 261.

Viscera: similar changes in, in various strong emotions, 275-279; changes in, not distinctive for emotions, 280-281.

Vomiting: in consequence of pain, 19.

Warfare: as an expression of strong emotions, 286; physical and moral values claimed for, 287; barbarities of, and opposition to, 289-290; moral substitutes for, 292-293; physical substitutes for, 293-297; contrast between ancient and modern, 294-295.

Witnesses: stimulating influence of, 227.

Work: effect of, on neuro-muscular irritability, 117; done with use of carbonaceous material, 190-193.

Transcriber's Notes

The following changes have been made to the text as printed.

1. Illustrations and end-of-page footnotes (marked with an asterisk) have been located in appropriate paragraph breaks. References, marked with numbered indices, have been re-indexed and are listed at the end of each chapter as in the book.

2. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

3. Where a word is used repeatedly in the same way, spelling and hyphenation have been made consistent, preferring the form most often used in the printed work, or failing that the more usual form in general use at the time of publication. No typographical change has been made within direct quotes from other works.

4. Page 25: "or thoradico-lumbar division" has been changed to "or thoracico-lumbar division".

5. Page 58: The name "Emden" in "Emden and v. Furth" has been changed to "Embden" in agreement with Footnote 1 on Page 65. (Gustav Embden, 1874-1933.)

6. Page 62: The Greek letter Β (Beta) has been substituted for Latin B at the start of "Β-tetrahydronaphthylamine".