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. V ... ;r::::p.. 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.