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.

    60/432 (page 38)
    THE EVIDENCE THAT SPLANCHNIC STIMULATION INDUCES ADRENAL SECRETION It was in 1891 that Jacobi1 described nerve fibers derived from the splanchnic trunks which were dis¬ tributed to the adrenal glands. Six years later Biedl2 found that these nerves conveyed to the glands im¬ pulses which cause dilation of their blood vessels (vaso¬ dilator impulses), and he suggested that they probably conveyed also secretory impulses. Evidence in sup¬ port of this suggestion was presented the following year by Dreyer,3 who demonstrated that electrical ex¬ citation of the splanchnic nerves produced in the blood taken from the adrenal veins an increased amount of a substance having the power of raising arterial blood pressure—an effect which is produced by injecting “adrenalin” into the circulation—and that this result was independent of accompanying changes in the blood supply to the glands. The conclusion drawn by Dreyer that this substance was adrenin has been confirmed in various ways by later observers. Tscheboksaroff4 re¬ peated Dreyer’s procedure and found in blood taken from the veins after splanchnic stimulation evidences of the presence of adrenin that were previously absent. Asher5 observed a rise of blood pressure when the glands were stimulated in such a manner as not to cause constriction of the arteries—the rise was there¬ fore assumed to be due to secreted adrenin. Dilation of the pupil was used by Meltzer and Joseph 6 to prove secretory action of the splanchnics on the adrenal