Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-06-08
MIND CONTROL OF HUNGER
Power Resident in Every Individual
Enabling Him to Subdue Crav-
ings for Sustenance.

The sensation of hunger cal be modi-
fled by mental effort. By promptly re-
fusing to entertain the mind with
thoughts and images of food and its
relish, the gastric secretion will receive
no stimulation, and hence the hunger be
kept in allegiance, says the Medical Rec
ord. The "posthumus notations" OF
Antonio Viterbi-a Corsican lawyer
who, in the year 1921, was sentenced to
death for some political reasons. fur
nish some very valuable arguments in IA
vor of this view. In order to escape the
an uncomfortable aversion, he resorted
to death by starvation, and while await
ing a slowly approaching dissolution.
took notes, OF the rise AND fall Of h efeel-
ings coursing through his consciousness.
From these notes we learn hat on the
third day Of his death fast the sensation
of hunger disappeared. His head was
clear, his thoughts sharp and lucid, and
his eyesight extraordinarily Keen. AS
the days went by he felt the coming and
going of sensations of thirst, but not OF
hunger. His consciousness remained
alert and rational to the last. On the
eighteenth day of his self-imposed
starvation he died. Neither thirst nor
hunger had seriously annoyed him, and
his last moments were calm and pain
less.
The calm intelligence and full realiza-
ton with which Antonio Viterbi ap-
preached his fate naturally held his
thoughts and imagination away from
representations of food. Hence the re-
feXes transmitted from the gastric
nerve endings to the brain failed to elicit
a conscious response. Hence no flow of
gastric juice and no sensation of hun
ger.
The same physiological principle is
manifested in the behavior of demented
and hysterical persons, whose minds be
ing busy with subjective images of
fright and horror, have been found to
starve for weeks without ever making
known any sensation of hunger.
On the other hand, If we inquire into
the mental conditions of starving sail
ors, strayirg travellers and other un-
fOrtunates who have been forced to face
starvation with their bodies i'll full
health, and their minds bound with
chains of torturing~ fascination to the i'm
agcry of a riotous appetite, we will find
that their sufferings have been truly in
l~escribable. Like a Tantalus in the
tale, who, surrounded by all the sumptu-
Gus viands of a highly wrought and
morbid imagination, which he found
himself unable to seize and to enjoy, 50
these u~nfortunates, with their gastric
Juice flooding the walls of their stom-
ach, and with storms of irritating i'm
pulses rushing through their brain, have
suffered untold agonies of hunger and
thirst. In most cases of this kind the vic
Tins lose their eason before they lose
their lives.
BY the strength of the arguments we
are entitled to the conviction hat there
Is q power resident in every individual,
enabling him tC control and subdue,
more or less succe. July, his morbid
cravings for food and drinks. The Sc
cret of breaking a habit or a passion lies
in the simple rule, hands off! Keep the
mind off the enticing subject. Refuse
promptly the idea Of its qualification by
removing the image from the field of con-
sciousness, The undue secretions of the
gastric glands will 500 cease and with
them the morbid cravings.
A study of the physiology of hunger
may thus furnish us a powerful lever in
the upbuilding of character and man
hood. Indeed. the only real value to be
found in the study of any science, phi
losophy OF religion, lies in the bearing
such a study may have on the elevation
and publication of the thoughts and mo-
tives Of men.