Adrenal secretion and the emergency function in fear, rage and pain

Cannon's 1915 book states that adrenin secreted in stress has all the effects in the body that injected adrenin produces. He listed several. Adrenin calls stored carbohydrate from the liver and floods the blood with sugar.¹ It helps distribute blood to the heart, lungs, central nervous system and limbs, and takes it from the inhibited abdominal organs. It quickly abolishes the effects of muscular fatigue and makes the blood clot more rapidly.² Cannon linked these facts to the experiences of pain, fear and rage that come suddenly in critical emergencies.³

Cannon's table of contents shows how the case was built. One part of the book gives the evidence that stimulating the splanchnic nerves induces adrenal secretion. Another asks whether secretion rises in emotional excitement.⁴ To answer it, he secured blood from near the adrenal veins and tested that blood for adrenin.⁵ The same chapters set out evidence that adrenal secretion increases with emotional excitement and with painful stimulation. They also report confirmation of his results by other observers.⁴

Crile's 1926 book and Bayliss's 1915 textbook cite related papers in their bibliographies. Crile's bipolar theory lists Cannon's paper on the emergency function of the adrenal medulla in pain and the major emotions, dated 1914.⁶ Crile also lists a 1917 study of the effects of adrenin on the distribution of the blood. It is by Hoskins and Gunning, not Cannon.⁷