DISTANCE CEPTORS EMOTIONS 143 



tance in interpreting both the emotions and Graves' 

 disease. He has found that the addition of iodin to 

 water in which kelp had been immersed facilitates 

 the passage of electrical currents through the semi- 

 permeable membranes surrounding the component 

 cells of the kelp. 



We have now three significant points for considera- 

 tion : namely, that the thyroid fabricates and stores 

 iodized protein ; that during emotion iodized protein 

 is probably thrown out of the gland in abnormal 

 amounts ; and that the effect of iodin is to decrease 

 the resistance to the passage of electrical currents 

 through semi-permeable membranes. The biologic de- 

 duction to be drawn from these facts is that in anger, 

 fear and sexual love it is probable that the adequate 

 stimulus reaches the brain and there causes the con- 

 version of highly labile compounds into electric or 

 some other form of transmissible energy, which passes 

 on to stimulate the thyroid and other organs. The 

 thyroid, being stimulated, throws iodized proteins 

 into the circulation. The iodized proteins, reaching 

 certain semi-permeable membranes, diminish the re- 

 sistance to the activating current, thereby lowering 

 the threshold to the specific stimulus and making more 

 effective the specific response evoked by the stimulus, 

 as a result of an increased sensitization of the w r hole 

 ^effector mechanism. This sensitized or iodized state 

 of the organism in turn facilitates a correspondingly 

 increased driving by the brain of every organ and tissue 

 in the body, with a total increase of energy transforma- 

 tion, which results in fatigue or exhaustion, according 

 to the duration of the activation. 



