The Body-Machine and Its Work 



digestive juices, the rhythmic movements of the food-canal which 

 work the nutriment downwards, and even the absorption of what 

 has been made soluble and diffusible. On the other hand unpleas- 

 ant emotions, such as envy, and mental disturbances, such as 

 worry, hinder digestion and the smooth working of the nutritive 

 process. 



The Cult of Joy 



When the hungry man sees the well-laid table his mouth 

 waters, but everyone knows that a memory or an anticipation will 

 also serve to move at least the first link in the digestive chain. 

 Professor Dearborn writes : "It is now well known that no sense- 

 experience is too remote from the innervations of digestion to be 

 taken into its associations, and serve as a stimulus of digestive 

 movements and secretions." As was said of old time, "He that is 

 of a merry heart has a continuous feast." When our joyous index 

 is high, our digestion is good. As Dr. Saleeby has put it, freedom 

 from care has nutritive value. It does not seem far-fetched to 

 wonder if the joyousness of singing birds may not react on their 

 remarkably well-developed capacities. We speak smilingly of 

 our friend's "eupeptic" cheerfulness, but our smile is a little apt 

 to become a materialism. We have to inquire whether our friend 

 is not "eupeptic" because of his psychical success in the great task 

 of happiness. The truth is that the mental and the bodily 

 harmonies are the bass and treble of one tune. 



The influence of mind on body finds a good illustration in 

 the stimulation of the adrenal glands by strong emotion. Anger, 

 which may be righteous, affects the production of adrenalin by 

 the core of the adrenal glands, situated near the kidneys. The 

 slight increase in this powerful "chemical messenger" or hormone, 

 which the blood sweeps away, has numerous effects through the 

 body. It constricts the smaller blood-vessels, and there is less 

 blood in the peripheral and more in the deeper parts. It raises 

 the blood-pressure, excites and freshens the muscles, adds to the 



