NATURE NURSES THE WOUNDED

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2714, 8 March 1916, Page 6

NATURE NURSES THE WOUNDED

BATTLEFIELD MARVELS EXPLAINED.

How a tiny gland—so small that It weighs only _ one-soventy-thousandth part of the weight of tho human body— is saving the lives of wounded soldiers on the battlefield was explained recent ly at the Royal Institution by Pro.™or Sherrington during a lecture on 1, Physiology of Anger and Fear." i Ji a )' e ,,^ on hy surgeons from tho battlefield, ' said the professor, "that one of the things that has struck them most has been tho way in which a lad lias survived after lying for hours in an absolutely collapsed condition, with what should be the irreparable injury or a bullet through the abdomen. Such wounds, the surgeons have found, sometimes seal themselves. "What has happened is that tho intestine has been absolutely paralysed and motionless. One understands that \.'? n ° no thinks of the emotional condition in which the man must have been just before he was shot, and of his feellugs when the bullet was tearing through him. The supply of blood was entirely shut off from the intestine as tne result of these emotions. In that way Mature does, as she so often does, the very best thing." Earlier in his lecture Prof. Sherrington had stated tho means by which this cutting off the blood supply to certain parts of the body is attained. Fear or pam causes a "nerve storm," wlfich in, tho first place greatly reduces the flow of blood to the skin and stomach while increasing the flow to the brain and voluntary muscles. This is Nature's way of saying, "Evidoutly there is something to be done." Then the nerve storm stimulates the minute ' : adrenal gland," which lies at the core of the supra-renal capsulo near the kidneys, and this gland poura straight Jnto the blood a chemical substance or greater potency'in its action Oil the blood vossels _ than any" other substance known in science. Its ability to cause a rise in the blood pressure in certain parts of the body, and consequently to withdraw blood from other parts, is so great that if a small quantity is introduced into the system it will burst au unhealthy artery. This substance is called adrenine. It is to the presence of adrenine in the blood that sucli remarkable survivals on the. battlefield as those mentioned by the professor are believed to be due. It reinforces the mora direct action of the nerves and by taking the in-' ternal pressure off the wounded'part enables it to heal.