2 2o POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Some experiments performed on dogs whose stomachs were kept 

 open for observation will, perhaps, make the situation more clear. If 

 a dog was allowed to eat meat in the usual way, its presence in the 

 stomach caused the reflex centers to send orders to the gastric cells 

 to commence secretion. The mere irritation caused by the presence of 

 objects in the stomach was not enough, for the introduction of in- 

 digestible substances, or rubbing the lining with sand, or a glass rod, 

 produced no gastric juice. Meat introduced directly from the outside, 

 not through the mouth, still stimulated the juices. Thus it seemed 

 to be purely a reflex performance — the ganglia seemed to say " you 

 press the right button, we do the rest," the mind seemed to be unneces- 

 sary. Nevertheless, if the dog was allowed to swallow the meat, which 

 was removed through a slit in the throat, and not permitted to enter 

 the stomach, gastric juice was as cheerfully secreted as usual. 

 This was puzzling enough, but worse was in store, for if the dog 

 smelled and saw the meat, without even biting it, gastric juice was 

 formed in larger amounts than if the meat were put into the stomach 

 without the knowledge of the dog. Plainly, reflex action here played 

 no part, and mental conditions of anticipation, pure emotion in fact, 

 occupied the whole stage. 



In other words, the stomach may be controlled in two ways, either 

 mechanically by contact with food, or mentally by the production of 

 emotions. If one fails, the other is still available. If food does not 

 produce gastric juice, the proper mental states may be made to supply 

 the deficiency. The problem of mental healing is here made absolutely 

 clear; we can no longer deny that it is possible. The only difficulty 

 is the method of production of the proper mental and emotional states. 

 This is the most important and fascinating aspect of the subject, but 

 space forbids its discussion in this place, as it leads into the realm of 

 hypnotism, subliminal consciousness, suggestion and double personality. 

 The experimenters were unfortunately unable to obtain data about 

 the mental conditions of the dog, and thus we can not state what the 

 results would have been upon its stomach of the memory of past feasts, 

 the hope of future ones, or the belief or dream that there was meat in 

 the stomach. We must wait for a satisfactory knowledge of the whole 

 subject until some person shall appear with an opening into his 

 stomach, like Alexis St. Martin, who, to our intense regret, died too 

 soon to demonstrate the facts of christian science. 



Not only is the stomach largely influenced by mental states, but 

 we all know that joy, sorrow, anger and other emotions cause that 

 extremely rapid and violent action of the heart that we call palpitation, 

 while fright stops its action, through the pneumogastric, so that 

 fainting occurs, or even death. Eage and other mental conditions 

 sometimes intensify the action of the liver enough to bring about 



