eal is still in prospect, there has
been instituted a series of changes in the wall of the stomach, which
gives rise to the so-called psychic secretion of gastric juice. These
changes are preceded by the sensation of appetite, which is evoked not
by the presence of food in the stomach--for the food has not yet been
swallowed--but by the anticipation of it, by the sight and smell of
food, as well as by more complex suggestions, such as the time of day,
the habitual hour, the approach of home, and so forth.

Emotional states of all sorts--grief, anger, anxiety, or
excitement--put a stop to the process or interfere with its action, so
that the sense of appetite is absent, and the taking of food is apt to
be followed by discomfort or pain or vomiting. No doubt good digestion
leads to a placid mind, but it is equally true that a placid mind is
necessary for good digestion. Therefore we civilised people, living
lives of mental stress and strain, try to increase the suggestive
force of our surroundings and to provoke appetite by all devices
calculated to stimulate the aesthetic sense. The dinner hour is fixed
at a time when all work and, let us hope, all worry is at an end for
the day. The dinner-table is made as pretty as possible, with flowers
and sparkling glass. We are wise to dress for dinner, that with our
working clothes we may put off our working thoughts.

In the treatment of adult dyspepsia we seldom succeed unless we can
place the mind at rest. We may advise a visit to the dentist and a set
of false teeth, or we may administer a variety of stomach tonics and
sedatives, but if the mind remains filled with nameless fears and
anxieties we shall not succeed.

In adult life the nervous person when subjected to excessive stress
and strain is seldom free from dyspeptic symptoms of one sort or
another, and what is true of adult life is even more true of
childhood, when the emotions are more poignant and less controlled.
Then tears flow more readily than in later life, and tears are not the
only secretions which lie under the influence of strong emotion.
Emotional states, which would stamp a grown man as a profound
neurotic, are almost the rule in infancy and childhood, and may be
marked by the same physical disturbances--flushing, sweating, or
pallor, by the discharge of internal glandular secretions as well as
by inhibition of appetite, by vomiting, gastric discomfort, or
diarrhoea. Naturally enough, mothers and nurses