Walter Bradford Cannon | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1871-10-19)October 19, 1871 |
| Died | October 1, 1945(1945-10-01) (aged 73) |
| Education | Harvard College(1896) Harvard Medical School(1900, M.D.) |
| Known for | Homeostasis Fight or flight X-ray experiments Cannon–Bard theory Voodoo death |
| Spouse | Cornelia James Cannon |
| Children | Bradford Cannon,Wilma Cannon Fairbank, Linda Cannon Burgess, Helen Cannon Bond,Marian Cannon Schlesinger |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Physiology |
| Institutions | Harvard Medical School |
Walter Bradford Cannon (October 19, 1871 – October 1, 1945) was an Americanphysiologist, professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology atHarvard Medical School. He coined the term "fight or flight response", and developed the theory ofhomeostasis. He popularized his theories in his bookThe Wisdom of the Body,[1][2] first published in 1932.
Cannon was born on October 19, 1871, inPrairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the son of Colbert Hanchett Cannon and his wife Wilma Denio.[3] His sisterIda Maud Cannon (1877-1960) became a noted hospital social worker atMassachusetts General Hospital.
In his autobiographyThe Way of an Investigator, Cannon counts himself among the descendants ofJacques de Noyon, aFrench Canadian explorer andcoureur des bois. HisCalvinist family was intellectually active, including readings fromJames Martineau,John Fiske (philosopher), andJames Freeman Clarke. Cannon's curiosity also led him toThomas Henry Huxley,John Tyndall,George Henry Lewes, andWilliam Kingdon Clifford.[4] A high school teacher, Mary Jeannette Newson, became hismentor. "Miss May" Newson motivated him and helped him take his academic skills intoHarvard University in 1892.[5]
Upon finishing his undergraduate studies in 1896, he entered Harvard Medical School. He started using X-rays to study the physiology of digestion while working withHenry P. Bowditch. In 1900 he received his medical degree.
After graduation, Cannon was hired byWilliam Townsend Porter at Harvard as an instructor in the Department of Physiology while continuing his digestion study.[6] Cannon was promoted to an assistant professor of physiology in 1902. He was a close friend of the physicist,G. W. Pierce, and together they founded theWicht Club with other young instructors for social and professional purposes. In 1906, Cannon succeeded Bowditch as the Higginson Professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology atHarvard Medical School until 1942. From 1914 to 1916, Cannon was also President of theAmerican Physiological Society.[7]
He was married toCornelia James Cannon, a best-selling author and feminist reformer. On July 19, 1901, during their honeymoon in Montana, they were the first people to reach the summit of the unclimbed southwest peak (2657 m or 8716 ft) of Goat Mountain, betweenLake McDonald andLogan Pass. That area is nowGlacier National Park. The peak was subsequently named,Mount Cannon, by theUnited States Geological Survey[8] The couple had five children; A son, Dr.Bradford Cannon, a military plastic surgeon and radiation researcher. The daughters wereWilma Cannon Fairbank (who was married toJohn K. Fairbank), Linda Cannon Burgess, Helen Cannon Bond, andMarian Cannon Schlesinger, a painter and author living inCambridge, Massachusetts.
His actions and his statements may infer his philosophy of life. Born into a Calvinistic family, he broke away from religious authoritarianism and became independent from his prior dogma. Later in life, he states that naturally occurring events are what makes for a useful end. He took on the role of a naturalist where believed that the body and mind are inseparable as an organismic unit. The explanations of his work should enable man to live more wisely, happily, and intelligently without the interjection of supernatural interference.[9]
E. Digby Baltzell said that Dr. Cannon was once offered a job at the Mayo Clinic for twice his Harvard salary. Cannon declined, saying "I don't need twice as much money. All I need is fifty cents for a haircut once a month, and fifty cents a day to get lunch."[10]
Cannon was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1906, theAmerican Philosophical Society in 1908, and the United StatesNational Academy of Sciences in 1914.[11][12][13]
Cannon supported animal experimentation and opposed the arguments of anti-vivisectionists. In 1911, he authored a booklet for theAmerican Medical Association criticizing the arguments of anti-vivisectionists.[14]
Walter Cannon died on October 1, 1945, inFranklin, New Hampshire.[15]
Walter Cannon began his career in science as a Harvard undergraduate in the year 1892.Henry Pickering Bowditch, who had worked withClaude Bernard, directed the laboratory in physiology at Harvard. Here Cannon began his research: he used the newly discoveredx-rays to study the mechanism of swallowing and themotility of thestomach. Within his first experiments, he was able to watch the course of a button down a dog's esophagus.[16] He said in his autobiography,The Way of an Investigator, "The whole purpose of my effort was to see theperistaltic waves to learn their effects. Only after some time did I note that the absence of activity was accompanied by signs of perturbation, and when serenity was restored the waves promptly reappeared."[17]
He demonstrateddeglutition in a goose at the APS meeting in December 1896 and published his first paper on this research in the first issue of theAmerican Journal of Physiology in January 1898.[7]
In 1945 Cannon summarized his career in physiology by describing his focus at different ages:[18]
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As per Cannon, adrenaline exerts several important effects on different body organs, all of which maintain homeostasis in fight-or-flight situations.[20] For example, in the skeletal muscle of the limbs, adrenaline relaxes blood vessels which increases local blood flow. Adrenaline constricts blood vessels in the skin and minimizes blood loss from physical trauma. Adrenaline also releases the key metabolic fuel, glucose, from the liver into the bloodstream. However, the fact that aggressive attack and fearful escape both involve adrenaline release into the bloodstream does not imply an equivalence of “fight” with “flight” from a physiological or biochemical point of view.
Cannon proposed the existence and functional unity of thesympathoadrenal (or “sympathoadrenomedullary” or “sympathico-adrenal”) system. He theorized that the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal gland work together as a unit to maintain homeostasis in emergencies.[22] To identify and quantify adrenaline release during stress, beginning in about 1919 Cannon exploited an ingenious experimental setup. He would surgically excise the nerves supplying the heart of a laboratory animal such as a dog or cat. Then he would subject the animal to a stressor and record the heart rate response. With the nerves to the heart removed, he could deduce that if the heart rate increased in response to the perturbation, then the increase in heart rate must have resulted from the actions of a hormone. Finally, he would compare the results of an animal with intact adrenal glands with those in an animal from which he had removed the adrenal glands. From the difference in the heart rate between the two animals, he could further infer that the hormone responsible for the increase in heart rate came from the adrenal glands. Moreover, the amount of increase in the heart rate provided a measure of the amount of hormone released. Cannon became so convinced that the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal gland functioned as a unit that in the 1930s that he formally proposed that the sympathetic nervous system uses the same chemical messenger—adrenaline—as does the adrenal gland.Cannon’s notion of a unitary sympathoadrenal system persists to this day. Researchers in the area have come to question the validity of the notion of a unitary sympathoadrenal system, although clinicians often continue to lump together the two components.
Cannon wrote several books and articles.
6th APS President (1914-1916)
