Phylogenetic Association in Relation to Certain Medical Problems (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

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Excerpt from Phylogenetic Association in Relation to Certain Medical Problems

The scope of the title of this paper may be explained by a concrete example.

When a barefoot boy steps on a sharp stone there is an immediate discharge of nervous energy in his effort at escape from the wounding stone. This is not a voluntary act. It is not due to his own personal experience (i.e., his ontogeny), but is due to the experience of his progenitors during the vast periods of time required for the evolution of the species to which he belongs, i.e., his phylogeny. The wounding stone made an impression upon the nerve receptors in the foot similar to the innumerable injuries which gave origin to this nerve mechanism itself during the boy's vast phylogenetic or ancestral experience. The stone supplied the phylogenetic association, and the appropriate discharge of nervous energy automatically followed. If the sole of the foot is repeatedly bruised or crushed by the stone, shock may be produced. If the stone be only lightly applied, then there is also a discharge of nervous energy from the sensation of tickling. The body has had implanted within it in a similar manner other mechanisms of ancestral or phylogenetic origin whose purpose is the discharge of nervous energy for the good of the individual. In this paper I shall discuss the origin and mode of action of some of these mechanisms including certain phases of anesthesia.

The word anesthesia - meaning without feeling - describes accurately the effect of ether in anesthetic dosage. Although no pain is felt in operations under inhalation anesthesia, the nerve impulses set up by a surgical operation still reach the brain. We know that not every portion of the brain is fully anesthetized, since surgical anesthesia does not kill.

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