NERVOUS CONTROL OF DIGESTION 175 



to be important aids to the healthy digestion of food, 

 which need not be large in quantity, although it should be 

 wisely presented. 



These psychical conditions of healthy feeding are not 

 trivial matters, as we are too apt to suppose. They are 

 part, and a very important part, of the physiology 

 of nutrition, and so deserving of scientific inquiry and of 

 practical attention. They have been made the subject of 

 careful experiment by a Russian physiologist, Pavloff. At 

 a recent meeting of the British Association this matter 

 was brought under discussion in the Physiological Section, 

 and it was pointed out by the author of a very interesting 

 communication that the whole question as to what is and 

 what is not a sound and healthy diet is too often dealt 

 with by writers who ignore the psychical (or shall we say 

 the cerebral ?) factor. Cases were cited of dangerous 

 arrest of the power of digesting, or even of swallowing, 

 food which were cured by giving the patient some appa- 

 rently inappropriate and probably harnlful article of food 

 for which he or she had a fancy, such as a grilled salmon- 

 steak, the last thing which would be spontaneously recom- 

 mended by a medical man to a patient who had been 

 suffering for weeks from inability to take food. The 

 willingness is all — the assent, the approval of the cerebral- 

 centres, and the consequent unlocking of the whole; 

 arrested mechanism of digestive secretions and movements. 

 Such a case is only an extreme instance. But it is 

 undoubtedly the fact that just as the sight of so small a 

 thing as a drop of blood, or even the word " blood," will 

 on occasion cause a strong, healthy man to faint, so quite 

 a small excess or defect in the accustomed quality of food 

 will at. times arrest the appetite and digestive processes of a 

 healthy man. To many a healthy individual one among 

 many flavours and savours associated with agreeable food 

 is necessary in order that healthy appetite and proper 



