310 SECRETS OF ANIMAL LIFE 



particles that dance unceasingly in the mazes of 

 our colloidal substratum, then the question is pre- 

 judged. But let us rid ourselves of the mechanistic 

 superstition and give Professor Dearborn fair play. 

 We have our little jokes about eupeptic happiness, 

 but our successors will smile at those who laughed 

 at one of our author's designations, " Psychologist 

 and Physiologist to the Forsyth Dental Infirmary 

 for Children, Boston/' 



The first step in the argument is that when our 

 joyous index is high our digestion is good. As Dr. 

 Saleeby has put it, freedom from care has nutritive 

 value. As was said of old time, " He that is of a 

 merry heart hath a continual feast," and " A merry 

 heart is the life of the flesh." Now, what the 

 researches of Pavlov, Cannon, Carlson, Crile, and 

 others have done is to demonstrate experimentally 

 that pleasant emotions favor the secretion of the 

 digestive juices, the rhythmic movements of the 

 food-canal, and the absorption of the aliment. 

 Contrariwise, unpleasant emotional disturbance and 

 worry of all sorts can be proved to have a retarda- 

 tive influence on the digestive processes. 



When the hungry man sees the well-laid table his 

 mouth waters, but every one knows that a memory 

 or an anticipation will also serve to move at least 

 the first link in the digestive chain. " It is now 

 well known/' says Dearborn, "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 



