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.

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    neurones of the cranial division of the autonomic system. NEURONES OF THE SYMPATHETIC DIVISION AND ADRENAL SECRETION HAVE THE SAME ACTION Lying anterior to each kidney is a small body—the adrenal gland. It is composed of an external portion or cortex, and a central portion or medulla. From the medulla can be extracted a substance, called vari¬ ously suprarenin, adrenin, epinephrin or “adre¬ nalin,” * which, in extraordinarily minute amounts, affects the structures innervated by the sympathetic division of the autonomic system precisely as if they were receiving nervous impulses. For example, when adrenin is injected into the blood, it will cause pupils to dilate, hairs to stand erect, blood vessels to be con¬ stricted, the activities of the alimentary canal to be inhibited, and sugar to be liberated from the liver. These effects are not produced by action of the sub- stance on the central nervous system, but by direct action on the organ itself.7 And the effects occur even after the structures have been removed from the body and kept alive artificially. The adrenals are glands of internal secretion, i. e., * The name, “adrenalin” is proprietary. “Epinephrin” and “adre¬ nin” have been suggested as terms free from commercial suggestions. As adrenin is shorter and more clearly related to the common ad¬ jectival form, adrenal, I have followed Schafer in using adrenin to designate the substance produced plrysiologically by the adrenal glands.