Evening star., 1938-09-14
Nv THOMAS r. HENRY.

body and brain which holds true from
earthworrn to elephant and goes far to
explain on a mechanistic basis mans
unique place as the dominant animal
of the universe was announced here
yesterday by DR.. George Grille OF
Cleveland, one Of the most distin-
guished Of American surgeons and
psychologists.
This law is that there is an exact
ratio between the weight of the nery-
GUS system Of any animal and the
amount Of energy which it generates
by the burning of food. For every
creature except man, DR.. Grille found
by dissecting thousands Of animals
this ratio is precisely gram Of nerve
tissue 70 1850 calories Of heat energy
in "a hours. BY far the greatest mass
Of nerve tissue is concentrated In the
brain Of any higher animal
All activity, physical or mental, Is a
Transformation OF this primary food
burning energy. The larger the body
the more fuel must be burned to keep
it warm, what Is left over being avail
able for other purposes.
Controlled by Brain Size.
Consequently, the bigger the brain
in relation to the body the more extra
energy to be converted into power
intelligence and personality" is created
Mans vast superiority in this respect
DR.. Grille said. makes him the most
powerful physiological machine in ma
ture, capable of sustained effort far
beyond any other living thing. Such
creatures as elephant or lion might
beat man at short bursts Of energy, but
they could not keep it up.
The brain, DR.. Grille said, appears
from these findings as the master
organ Of the energy system" 1t Is
excited by impulses coming in from the
outside. 1t, in turn, excites the thyroid
gland, which serves as the furnace
regulator of the body 1t, in turn
excites the adrenal glands and the
sympathetic nervous system, which act
as drafts on the furnace.
Hitherto the brain has not been
assigned any role in physiological en-
ergy creation and has been considered
solely as consumer Of energy in the
processes Of thinking and the directing
Of voluntary acts.
List Of Findings.
Following are some OF DR.. Crile's
findings:
That man and whale alone have
larger thyroid glands than adrenals.
The former, acted on by nerve i'm
pulses from the brain, keeps the body
furnace burning with constant sup
ply OF energy needed for steady work
or play. The adrenals are like bellows
OF a blacksmith's forge, necessary for
production Of occasional great spurts
Of energy In emergencies.
Only man and whale, DR.. Grille said,
are in position to use energy in this
way, one being the dominant animal
on earth and the other in the sea and
both being sufficiently powerful SO
that they need not be in constant fear
Of destruction by other animals.
That the farther north one goes
the bigger the brains OF both man
and the lower animals. the polar bears
brain being considerably larger than
that Of other bears Of comparable
size, and the Eskimos having the
largest brains found in the human
race. This, he said, is because the
colder 1t is the more heat energy
must be produced. and, consequently,
the larger must be the brain, accord
ing to the newly-discovered law Of
brain-body relationship.
Temperature Requirements.
That IS per cent Of the food eaten
by warm -blooded animals, including
man. is required to keep up the body
temperature. Consequently. a warm
blooded animal must have at least
a IS per cent larger brain than a
cold-blooded animal of the same body
weight. The exact comparison he
worked out was between the lion and
the crocodile.
That worry can be eliminated COM
pletely by interrupting at any point
the nerve chain between brain. thyroid
and adrenals. He first observed this,
DR.. Grille said, during the war when
soldiers whose spinal cords had been
shot through and who could live only
q few days ut the most were COM
pletely Indifferent to the future. They
had an Intellectual realization Of their
fate, but the brain was unable to
send any impulses to the adrenals
which in turn would have released
supply of adrenalin which would
have produced the emotional state of
worry.
He told of one case where, acting on
this theory, he anesthetized the spinal
cord of q womaIs in an extreme state
of anxiety because an enlarged thy
roid, pushed by an overaetive brain,
which in turn was acting upon the
adrenals. which flooded the blood
stream with adrenalin. The return to
mental normality lasted for few days
until the effect of the anesthetic
wore of. A similar effect can be OBJ
tanned by the very difficult and dan
gerous operation Of cutting OIL almost
completely the nerve supply Of the
adrenal glands.
DR.. Grille made his announcement
in presenting to the gland surgeons
his theory Of the origin Of exothalmic
goiter. condition Of enlargement of
the thyroid gland In which large
amounts Of thyroxin continuously are
poured into the blood stream. The re-
suit is that the person lives at q very
rapid rate. burns up food more rap
idly than normal, Is extremely nervous,
given to storms of weeping. soon grows
very emaciated from the consumption
of the body's fat reserve, and soon
dies.