Synopses & Reviews
This second volume completes the story begun in
Walter B. Cannon: The Life and Times of a Young Scientist (Harvard University Press, 1987), tracing the middle and late years of one of America's most distinguished medical scientists.
It resumes during World War II with Cannon's battlefield work on traumatic shock in England and France, and follows him to Harvard Medical School as he investigated the workings of the sympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system, reaffirmed his emergency theory of the sympathico-adrenal system, and developed his now-famous concept of homeostasis and pioneer contributions to the newly emerging field of neuro-endocrinology. This volume also recounts Cannon's work with society on a broader scale, including defending the practice of animal experimentation, the rescue of European medical émigrés fleeing the Nazis and Fascists, and providing medical aid to the Spanish Loyalists and to China. Moreover, as a senior statesman of science, Cannon helped guide policies and programs that shaped the future of medical research, practice, and education.
Review
This is thoroughly engaging and [a] very readable account. It not only surveys the life and works of Walter B. Cannon but also provides a wide-ranging tableau of early-twentieth-century physiology. Otniel E. Dror
Review
The strength of the book is its single-minded focus and clarity. Scholars of Cannon's theories of shock, homeostasis, physiology of the emotions, and the chemical mediation of nerve impulses may delight in the thoroughly and lucidly written science. Rich with detail extracted from a surfeit of primary sources, the second volume is even more satisfying than the first. Journal of the History of Biology
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 531-618) and index.
Table of Contents
Part I: World War 1 1. The Mystery of Shock I: Acidosis
2. The Mystery of Shock II: Resuscitation
3. A Lifeline of Letters
Part II: The 1920s
4. Postwar Adjustments, and a New Era at the Medical School
5. The Crucible: Stewart & Rogoff Challenge the Emergency Theory
6. Antivivisection, Another Field of Battle
7. A Spirit of Fellowship: Ties with Pavlov and Yerkes
8. Homeostasis and the Sympathico-Adrenal System
9. An Alternative Theory of the Emotions
10. Friends and Associates of Medical Progress
11. One Man's Family
12. The Physiology Department: An Extended Family
Part III: The 1930s
13. Scientific Outreach at Home and Abroad
14 Chemical Mediation of Nerve Impulses I: Searching for the Mysterious X-factor
15. No End of Emergencies
16. Chemical Mediation of Nerve Impulses II: Sympathin E and Sympathin I
17. Around the World in 1935
18. The Spanish Medical Bureau
19. Refugees from War-torn Europe
20. The Body Physiologic...
21. ...and the Body Politic
Part IV: World War II
22. A World at War
23. The End of a Career
24. Medical Aid to China; American-Soviet Friendship
25. On the Wings of Time
Abbreviations and Locations
End Notes
Index