Made in the 1950s, this film recounts the medical research work of Dr. János Hugo Bruno “Hans” Selye, (January 26, 1907 – October 16, 1982), a pioneering Austrian-Canadian endocrinologist of Hungarian origin. He conducted much important scientific work on the hypothetical non-specific response of an organism to stressors. Although he did not recognize all of the many aspects of glucocorticoids, Selye was aware of their role in the stress response. Many scientists believe him to be the first to demonstrate the existence of biological stress.
We apologize that this print is water damaged, but the content remains quite vivid. The film shows a variety of medical experiments performed on mice including subjects injected with formalin and other chemicals to produce stress, and other forms of stress such as (at 7:10) the animal being immobilized or (at 9:28) starved, or exposed to extreme cold (12:48) or heat.
Dr. Selye’s inspiration for general adaptation syndrome (GAS, a theory of stress) came from an endocrinological experiment in which he injected mice with extracts of various organs. He at first believed he had discovered a new hormone, but was proved wrong when every irritating substance he injected produced the same symptoms (swelling of the adrenal cortex, atrophy of the thymus, gastric and duodenal ulcers). This, paired with his observation that people with different diseases exhibit similar symptoms, led to his description of the effects of “noxious agents” as he at first called it. He later coined the term “stress”, which has been accepted into the lexicon of most other languages.
Selye discovered and documented that stress differs from other physical responses in that stress is stressful whether one receives good or bad news, whether the impulse is positive or negative. He called negative stress “distress” and positive stress “eustress”. The system whereby the body copes with stress, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis) system, was also first described by Selye. He also pointed to an “alarm state”, a “resistance state”, and an “exhaustion state”, largely referring to glandular states. Later he developed the idea of two “reservoirs” of stress resistance, or alternatively stress energy.
In recent years it has emerged that Selye worked as a consultant for the tobacco industry from the 1950s until his death, receiving extensive funding for his research, and taking part in pro-smoking campaigns paid for by the tobacco industry. The tobacco industry’s funding of Selye’s research was cited as an example of racketeering in the successful anti-racketeering case brought by the US Department of Justice against 7 tobacco companies in 2009.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
