Canons

1945 · rif. 2058 — 1945 SCARCE FIRST PRINTING OF LANDMARK AUTOBIOGRAPHY BY WALTER CANNON WHO DEFINED THE FIGHT OR FLIGHT RESPONSE. 8 1/2 inches tall hardcover original red cloth binding stated first edition "A wartime book. This complete edition is produced in full compliance with the government's regulations for conserving paper and other essential materials". Light stain to upper right corner of front and back covers dampstaining to edges of dust jacket which has edge tears along top edge pages are clean and unmarked. Overall good. First printings of this wartime book an autobiography published the year of Cannon's death are very scarce. WALTER BRADFORD CANNON 1871 - 1945 was an American physiologist professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School. He coined the term fight or flight response and he expanded on Claude Bernard's concept of homeostasis. In his autobiography The Way of an Investigator Cannon counts himself among the descendents of Jacques de Noyon a French Canadian explorer and coureur des bois. A high school teacher Mary Jeannette Newson became his mentor. "Miss May" Newson motivated and helped him take his academic skills to Harvard University. In 1896 his first year at Harvard Medical School he started working in Bowditch's Lab and in 1900 he received his medical degree. After graduation Cannon was hired by Harvard to instruct in the Department of Physiology. In 1906 Cannon became Higginson Professor and chairman of the Department of Physiology at Harvard Medical School a position he held until 1942. From 1914 to 1916 he was also President of the American Physiological Society. In 1915 he coined the term fight or flight to describe an animal's response to threats in Bodily Changes in Pain Hunger Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement. W.W. Norton & Co. hardcover books