Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage : an account of recent researches into the function of emotional excitement / by Walter B. Cannon.

  • Cannon, Walter B. (Walter Bradford), 1871-1945.
Date:
1929
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage : an account of recent researches into the function of emotional excitement / by Walter B. Cannon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    407/432 (page 385)
    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 unan¬ swered the claims of the militarists that in war and in preparations for war opportunities are offered which are peculiarly favorable to the development of im¬ portant 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 al¬ ternative 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 * 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 re¬ luctantly to abandon a practice to which we attached great im-