DISTANCE CEPTORS EMOTIONS 141 



olism and storage of iodin in a protein combination. 

 Iodized protein injected in excess into a normal animal 

 causes most of the symptoms of fear palpitation 

 of the heart, rapid respiration, sweating, trembling, 

 emaciation, inhibition of digestion, staring eyes, wid- 

 ened pupils, increased metabolism. Iodized protein 

 causes changes in the brain-cells identical with the 

 changes wrought by emotion. Like emotion, it causes 

 also a lowered sugar tolerance and a tendency to gly- 

 cosuria. 



The thyroid gland has been called the organ of the 

 emotions. It is the only gland in the body whose 

 enlargement forms an essential factor of the disease 

 exophthalmic goiter, whose phenomena resemble closely 

 those of emotion. (Fig. 19.) Exophthalmic goiter, 

 emotion and the excessive administration of iodin cause 

 nearly identical phenomena. Excessive administration 

 of iodin often causes a pathologic emotional state which 

 cannot be distinguished from Graves' disease, and in 

 continued overdosage, iodin may even cause Graves' 

 disease. 



What rdle may iodin play in the acceleration of body 

 activities in emotion ? The salient features of emotion, 

 and also of that emotional disease, exophthalmic 

 goiter, is a lowered threshold to all stimuli, whether of 

 the contact, distance or chemical ceptors. The organ- 

 ism responds at such times to the prick of a pin, a 

 hint of danger, or the slightest infection, by a trans- 

 formation of energy many times greater than would fol- 

 low the same stimulation in the normal organism. The 

 researches of Osterhaut bear significantly upon this 

 point and would seem to be of fundamental impor- 



