The Omaha Sunday . Bee Magazine Page .
When we eooy ourselves like this on
i
, mo n.ui iii rj
OST of us Jtnow what ft means to
M
"feel good," and those who do
not certainly know what it means
to "feel bad." Few people, however, have
(any definite idea of the exact causes that
produce these states of feeling. "We know,
Tor InstanceV that a pleasant breeze on a
moderately warm day is likely to make us
feel food. We know that a good dinner
properly digested has a similar effect. Bat
the exact paths by which this feeling ia
spread all through our organism, is a mys
tery to moat people.
k Professor George V. N. Dearborn of the
Tufts College Medical and Dental Schools,
Boston, and the Sargent Normal School,
Cambridge, has made a most Ingenious at
tempt to explain scientifically what It ia
that makes ns "feel good" and also, to
some extent, what makes us "feel bad."
Among his conclusions he flndB that the
4.000,000 villi of the intestine, little tufta,
rich in smooth muscle- and sympathetic
nerves, adapt the nutritive fata and pro
line of the blood to the immediate needs
the nerve cells and may, besides, send
sympathetic Influences which, fusing in
the brain, mak us "feel , good" or gen
erally happy.
"Euphoria'is the pretty scientific word,
that he uses for the condition of feeling
generally well and happy. "Dysphoria" is
the corresponding word for feeling bad.
This scientist finds that three classes
r-f factors principally make up the condi
tion of "Euphoria": (A) Nutritional and
aympathetlc Influences from the active in
testinal villi; (B) Kinesthesia, or the sens6
of movement, and (C) the eplcrltic im
pulses or the impulses which flow from
sensations felt in the skin.
The nutritional Influences toward good
humor or feeling good go to the neurons,
or nervous units, and especially to those
in the gray layer of the brain and trunk
nerves through the blood streams from the
liver and digestive centres. The sympa
thetic Impulses that also contribute to
feeling good are certain nerve currents
which experimental physiology ' and the
investigator's personal experience both
suggest to be in operation. These im
pulses from the intestines have much to
do with the determination of moods and
passions and temperaments.
Profeesor Dearborn says that under
normal conditions there Is a direct rela
tionship between absorption of food from
the small intestines and the general state
of the mind. This Is why acute fatigue is
so immediately relieved by a glass of hot
milk or malted milk or some variety of
soup . This profound physiological truth
also explains why the worried man. on
coming home from the office feels 'his
worries slip away so very quickly after
dinner. There Is a "direct nutritive stimu
lation" of the central, and especially tho
cortical, nerve centres.
"It is not a traditional delusion," says
Professor ' Dearborn, "that fat men and
boys are usually good natnred, and lean
Women cuttingly keen and not, obviously,
too happy. On the one hand, the Eskimos,
and on the other band, the races of South
ern Europe, both eaters of much fat, cer
tainly have a higher euphoric index than
the Scotchman, for example, or the thin,
-down-East Yankee.
A comfortable condition of the nerve
cells is dependent on the supply of "Nisei's
granules," a complex substance com
pounded of fat and protein, in which tha
' characteristic determinant is what the
biologists term a lipoid, a fatlike material,
or phosphorixed fat Experiments have
shown that there is a very quick loss o(
this material in the nerve cells when the
loss of material by the body exceeds the
intake. In addition to these important
bodies the sheath of the principal nerves
is a fatty substance, very liable to suffer
from the same causes.
The minute nerve cells are in imme
diate and constant relation with the blood
stream. A blood corpuscle passes entirely
mm
6t.
a warm day we 'feel good' because the
. i t it ii
a. pan or me nerve complex we tn
t ri ir " r
vvny iou nave inatJLazy,
Contented Feeling AftefyaG6o&
Meal; Why We Love to Bask in the
Warm Summer Sunshine; Why
Dancing Makes
Makes Us Uncomfortable
on of Days and Why Everybody
Hates Hum id, Sticky Weather
through the circulation- in about thirty sec
onds. The unification jof nerve cell nutri
tion and blood from the intestine is sur
prisingly complete snd rapid. An Increase
In the fat content taken up by the intes
tine is almost immediately used in the
lining of the brain and trunk nerves, rais
ing the tone of the nerve cells to a bet
ter condition.
The Physical Mechanism of Happiness.
lSrioa f Is.
tntlul villus. A,
A, lywpk corpn
elea tkat abaorb
food article B.
Irmpkale . i e (
that MiTtri (VN
Ukmeat to aerva
erllat C. wall !
Tillaai D, korAer
f Jyatphatla 4oet.
X lateatlaal
Tlllaa, ahewtaa
too aartlcla R)
boat bo ab.
aarbS . lata tba
Sla-eatlT ayatoaa
throaah tho vtllaa
aaS arparatet lato
Ita aUtcreat do.
Meats.
Professor Dearborn gives an interesting
ketch of the passage of tat from the In
testine to the nerve cells. The villi are
the chief organs of food absorption from
the intestines. There are about 4,000,000
of these organs In the human. They are
irregular, but in general finger-shaped or
gans, about one-tenth of an Inch in
length. Their combined surface area in
creases the absorptive area of the Intes
tine at least a hundredfold over what It
would be if the gut were a smooth-walled
tube Instead of one partly filled by these
organa The villus contains among its
many complicated parts a central lympha
tic tube, whose chief function is to re
ceive the fat globules and to forward them ,
into the circulation. Professor Dearborn
says that it is extremely probable that
the mechanism of the villus has as part
of its function the providing of more fat
from other pans of the body for the
nerves. On this basis, he thinks the villus
la understandable as a minute reservoir
of ' adipose material, perhaps. Indeed,
chiefly, for the variable uses of the ner
vous system, nerve cells, and nerve fibres.
Kinesthesia is the second main factor
In the condition of feeling good. It is de
nne4 as the fundamental behavior sen
and by one authority. as the quality by
which we become aware of our position in
space. Thousands of impulses, strains and
mm
y&MXMm
sensations that reach our brain through
: it ....
u)ipiiin ,
r T"I - - r
Us Happy ; What ;
influences, from as many receptors in the
joints, muscles, tendons, skla and bones,
are continually pouring Into our centres
of consciousness.
"These." says Professor Dearborn, "rep
resent in the ultimate analysis the environ
ment to the personality within and more
specifically integrate the body and the
mind, furnishing to the psychomotor cen
S Fbo4 partlclo
E) la laterlo o(
vtilaa. whoro Ita
fat la extract
for tb bcaeflt (
tbo acrvoaa tb
taas aaS earrleS
to tbo Unlav of
tbo braJa aaS
aerrea.
4 ratty (lob.
1 (K), wbteh
baa brea rx
trartei from the
food aartlcla by
the lraih eor
pooeloa paeala
throaah th lit.
tie Suet to the
lyasphatl aya.
teas.
5 ratty
Blobale E)
!
throaah tho
a 1 a
I y at p h arte
fact to tb
ill elavlaa
vla r).
tres their only data by which the body
may be co-ordinated."
The muscles of onr body have always,
even in the deepest fiumber, some "tonus"
and are sending, together with their
mechanical fellow tissues, floods of en
ergy into the central nervous system. This
Is why physical activity makes happi
ness and creates mental activity.
Swimming, skating snd classical danc
ing must. In the opinion of Professor
Dearborn, create conditions of physiolog
ical happiness.
Anything that involves skill tends to
create- happiness through the kinesthetic
sense. A sllghtof-hand performance, guid
ing a fret saw, engraving on metal or carv
ing wood, drawing, pitching skilfully a
baseball all such movements have an in
herent pleasantness. They supply In in
tensity of kinesthesia what they lack in
quantity of stimulation.
The third main factor in making us feel
rood consists of the eplcrltic Impulses re
ceived from the skin. The many functions
of the skin are still imperfectly under
stood, but are bow being investigated with
Interesting results. Only a few specialists
in biology realise how complex this simple,
looking body mechanism really is. An ac
companying diagram shows some of the
Important functions of the skin.
Among the more complex elements of
"'pyrlsht, 1918, by th Etar Company
. mM
: - HI
a Fatty alob.
lo B eaterlaa;
tho heart thraab
tho aabelavlaa
re I a (G), aa Ita
way to the hrala
aa4 aorvoaa aya
feat. v Atter pmrw
lav throaah tb
clrcelatloa tho
fatty aabataae
K) reach th
llataa of tbo
brala, ahowa by
ahadlaa, aad tba
aervra.
SJ 6 Tk Varioui 7
li'lf V.if rttZ' Function 6f Lfffi'''
Mr:
1. Protection against Injury. 2. Perception of hst. S. Sen-
sstlon. 4 8wst production. S. Lubrication or nbum produs-
tion. I. Rssplrstlon. 7. Absorption. 8. Coloration. 9. Hair
production.
the human skin are the heat-receptor,
cold-receptors, pain-receptors, pleasure-receptors,
tickle-receptors and "arrectores
pUonim." or "hair raisers."
Evidence accumulates that one large and
, Grist Britain Rights Rirvd.
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r -.iwr-
well-nigh Indispensable element of feel
ing well, is stimulation of the skin in the
way natural to It. Just as a Spring wind
bowing over a rich, natural meadow be
neficially Influences all the differeut kinds
of herbage at . once, to the general en
rlchment of the field, so a proper stimula
1 Hon of the skin Influences the whole hu
man organism.
Experiments have
proved that air
which is "dead," 1.
e., not moving, hu
mid and too warm,
humid and too cold,
or lacking In oiy-,
gen, Is a ready oc
, c s s I o n e r of gen
eral discomfort, ill
defined irritations in
stomach and intes
tines and a rapidly
rising temperature
in the skin. All thst
science rsn say on
this point now is
thst desd air means
a lack of movement
over the skin; air
that la humid and
too warm means a
lack of stimulation
by the most suitable
temperature and by
evaporation; air that
is humid snd too
cold mesns similarly
a lack of the most
suitable temperature
and a lack of dryness. Lack of oxygen in
the air, whether from ita general chemical
composition or from its utter deadneas
next to the skin, means a lack of stimula
tion in the various receptors. .
Co.Moea ,
'A .Very Important, Group ol
Factors to Happiness Arises
from .Movements, Such as
1 Classical Dancing or Doing .
Some Skilful Work."
Madame Karsavina Her
Illustrates the Kind of ' '
- Dancing That Helps
Happiness. ,
Other sense organs, those of oxidation
or evaporation, of tickle and of touch, are
In a like manner "tunable" to outside con
ditions. . ' . .....
Gentle friction of the skin is also' con
ducive to feeling well. Every known ani
mal of. sufficient' evolutionary develop
ment acts as if It enjoyed gentle massage
of the skin. Baths of suitable temperature
have a most Important Influence In mak
ing lis feel well because of the gentle
stimulation of the skin, which is Imme
diately felt by the deep-seated . nervous
receptors.
Two functions of the skin which spread
a feeling of well-being through the system
sre evaporation and oxidation. The evap
oration of the sweet poured out in the epi
dermis is the chief means of the refuta
tion of temperature. The average dally
amount is about 1,500 cubic centimeters
(about 1,600 thlmblefuls), but a group of
glassmakers observed by Df. McElroy had
sn sversge secretion of 25,000 cubic cen
timeters in the course of a nine-hour day.
Occasionally the production stopped,
whereupon the man would become 111, have
to cease work and would be revived by
the active efforts of his fellow . workers.
This shows thst the sweating function ia
closely allied with feeling well. Sultry
and muggy weather shows us the same
thing unless free evaporation corrects it.
.Students in a Summer school may enjoy
a feeling of "Euphoria" with vigorous ex
ercise when the gymnasium temperature
is In the 90 'a. ,
The mysterious highly euphoric stimuls.
tion of a gale of wind, when not outside
the favorable range of temperature, as in
Nova Scotia In September, Is well known
to doctors, and this implies that gross
friction, friction in the ordinary physical
sense of the term, may be also a factor in
making ua "feel good." "Massage and tht
caress seem to possibly imply the same
thing," comments Professor Dearborn.