Bodily changes in pain, hunger, fear, and rage

by Walter B. Cannon

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure		Page
1.	Diagram of the more important distributions of the autonomic nervous system	[25]
2.	Diagram of the arrangements for recording contractions of the intestinal muscle	[49]
3.	Intestinal muscle beating in inactive blood	[53]
4.	Alternate application of “excited” blood and “quiet” blood, from the same animal, to intestinal muscle initially beating in Ringer’s solution	[55]
5.	The effect of prolonging the excitement	55
6.	Failure of the cava blood to produce inhibition when excitement has occurred after removal of the adrenal glands	[57]
7.	Effect of adding adrenin to formerly inactive blood	[58]
8.	The effect of bubbling oxygen through active blood	[59]
9.	Intestinal muscle beating in normal vena cava blood	[62]
10.	The shielded electrodes used in stimulating the splanchnic nerves	[87]
11.	Contraction of the tibialis anticus and stimulation of the left splanchnic nerves	[89]
12.	Arterial blood pressure with membrane manometer, contractions of tibialis anticus, and splanchnic stimulation	[91]
13–17.	Effect of varying arterial blood pressure upon muscular contraction over time	[98]–104
18.	Threshold stimulus of muscles during an experiment	[116]
19.	Threshold stimulus of muscles during an experiment	[122]
20.	Threshold stimulus of muscles during an experiment	[124]
21.	Effect of adrenin injection upon blood pressure and contractions of the tibialis anticus muscle	[128]
22.	Effect of amyl nitrite injection upon blood pressure and contractions of the tibialis anticus muscle	[128]
23.	Effect of adrenin injection upon blood pressure and contractions of the tibialis anticus muscle when denervated	[131]
24.	Diagram of the graphic coagulometer	[139]
25.	Record of five successive tests of coagulation	[145]
26.	Shortening of coagulation time after injection of adrenin	[151]
27.	Differing effects upon the coagulation time of slow and rapid injections of adrenin	[153]
28.	Persistent shortening of the coagulation time after injection of adrenin when brain and upper cord pithed	[154]
29.	Shortening of coagulation time after stimulation of the left splanchnic nerves	[163]
30.	Shortening of coagulation time after stimulation of the left splanchnic nerves	[164]
31.	Results of stimulating the left splanchnic nerves after removal of the left adrenal gland; and of stimulating the right splanchnic nerves with right adrenal gland present	[169]
32.	Three shortenings of coagulation time after stimulation of the left sciatic nerve	[174]
33.	Shortening of coagulation time during an operation under light anesthesia	[175]
34.	Record of rapid clotting after emotional excitement	[180]
35.	Rapid clotting after emotional excitement, with slowing of the process when the splanchnic nerves were cut in the thorax	[182]
36.	Adrenal secretion produced by asphyxia	[208]
37.	Intragastric pressure, respiration and report of hunger pangs against time	[257]
38.	The same conditions as in Fig. 37	[259]
39.	Compression of thin rubber bag in the lower esophagus, and report of hunger pangs against time	[260]

BODILY CHANGES IN PAIN, HUNGER, FEAR AND RAGE

CHAPTER I

THE EFFECT OF THE EMOTIONS ON DIGESTION

The doctrine of human development from subhuman antecedents has done much to unravel the complex nature of man. As a means of interpretation this doctrine has been directed chiefly toward the solving of puzzles in the peculiarities of anatomical structure. Thus arrangements in the human body, which are without obvious utility, receive rational explanation as being vestiges of parts useful in or characteristic of remote ancestors—parts retained in man because of age-long racial inheritance. This mode of interpretation has proved applicable also in accounting for functional peculiarities. Expressive actions and gestures—the facial appearance in anger, for example—observed in children and in widely distinct races, are found to be innate, and are best explained as the retention in human beings of responses which are similar in character in lower animals.

From this point of view biology has contributed much to clarify our ideas regarding the motives of human behavior. The social philosophies which prevailed during the past century either assumed that conduct was determined by a calculated search for pleasure and avoidance of pain or they ascribed it to a vague and undefined faculty named the conscience or the moral sense. Comparative study of the behavior of men and of lower animals under various circumstances, however, especially with the purpose of learning the source of prevailing impulses, is revealing the inadequacy of the theories of the older psychologists. More and more it is appearing that in men of all races and in most of the higher animals, the springs of action are to be found in the influence of certain emotions which express themselves in characteristic instinctive acts.

The rôle which these fundamental responses in the higher organisms play in the bodily economy has received little attention. As a realm for investigation the bodily changes in emotional excitement have been left by the physiologists to the philosophers and psychologists and to the students of natural history. These students, however, have usually had too slight experience in the detailed examination of bodily functions to permit them to follow the clues which superficial observation might present. In consequence our knowledge of emotional states has been meager.

There are, of course, many surface manifestations of excitement. The contraction of blood vessels with resulting pallor, the pouring out of “cold sweat,” the stopping of saliva-flow so that the “tongue cleaves to the roof of the mouth,” the dilation of the pupils, the rising of the hairs, the rapid beating of the heart, the hurried respiration, the trembling and twitching of the muscles, especially those about the lips—all these bodily changes are well recognized accompaniments of pain and great emotional disturbance, such as fear, horror and deep disgust. But these disturbances of the even routine of life, which have been commonly noted, are mainly superficial and therefore readily observable. Even the increased rapidity of the heart beat is noted at the surface in the pulsing of the arteries. There are, however, other organs, hidden deep in the body, which do not reveal so obviously as the structures near or in the skin, the disturbances of action which attend states of intense feeling. Special methods must be used to determine whether these deep-lying organs also are included in the complex of an emotional[*] agitation.

[*]In the use of the term “emotion” the meaning here is not restricted to violent affective states, but includes “feelings” and other affective experiences. At times, also, in order to avoid awkward expressions, the term is used in the popular manner, as if the “feeling” caused the bodily change.

Among the organs that are affected to an important degree by feelings are those concerned with digestion. And the relations of feelings to the activities of the alimentary canal are of particular interest, because recent investigations have shown that not only are the first stages of the digestive process normally started by the pleasurable taste and smell and sight of food, but also that pain and great emotional excitement can seriously interfere with the starting of the process or its continuation after it has been started. Thus there may be a conflict of feelings and of their bodily accompaniments—a conflict the interesting bearing of which we shall consider later.