RF Annual Report - 1935 - The Rockefeller Foundation

THE NATURAL SCIENCES 125
psychical aspects of emotional states and various
physiological functions. Indeed, for important
aspects of the relationship one must even leave
the physiologist's laboratory and consult the
biological and organic chemists; for the specific
substance which is secreted by the gland in
question was isolated, purified, and found to
have a composition C8Hi803N, and a structure
which is indicated by its name "dihydroxymethylamino-ethylobenzene."
There have been repeated instances of the
similar establishing of direct relationships between
"mental" activity, emotional states, etc.,
on the one hand, and physiological data on the
other hand, these relationships being ultimately
stated in biochemical terms. To indicate how
deeply into the psychical realm such investigations
can penetrate, one recalls the classical experiments
of Pavlov who, a physiologist studying
the digestive process in a dog, uncovered basic
facts, if not indeed the basic facts, of learning,
memory, control, and inhibition. One also recalls
that the maternal instinct which leads a
female animal to care for, fondle, feed, and protect
her young has been demonstrated to be dependent
upon various chemicals, one of which,
manganese, is a metallic element also used to
make tool steel hard and tough! To indicate how
broadly such concepts now
underlie the inter-
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