Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1932-01-01
!, Why We Behave
Like Human Beings
Q, GEORGE DORSEY. Ph. D.. IL. D.
Children of the Emotions

IN, A Carnegie laboratory a man
Weighing 1874 pounds began test
fast. With no food. but plenty of dis
TILED water. he lost % pounds in a
month. He lost some muscular
strength, but gained In sharpness of
senses and ability to learn new tricks.
The first three days of fast are
the hardest. Suffering thereafter Is
imaginary, due to fear or panic. "Vol-
untary starvation Is in no sense he
roic act"; the exalted" feelings,
signs and sounds reported by fasting
ascetics are pure Authorization, thinks
Carlson. Their brains are not more
active, but less: they dream! Starva-
ton changes the nature of the blood
and the tissue Of the brain. Hnlluci-
nations are children of the emotions
rather than Of the brain.
II the baby does not like Its first
meal, IL will refuse it, as chick does
bitter worm. Man is born with
sucking reflex and hunger mechanism;
his appetite begins to be conditioned
with his first meal. We do not In
herit thirst for milk or beer, or
craving for pickles or alcohol.
All eat to live and some live to eat.
We inherit a hunger complex; we ac-
quire complex appetite. Both hun
ger and appetite furnish their quota
to prisons, but succeed fairly well in
keeping out of the insane asylum. Hun
ger fills alms-houses, appetite supplies
hospitals. The complete appetite has
become an important factor in human
culture and has even shaped the des-
TIMES" of some nations.
He is a ''born hog" He may de-
serve the epIthet, but there are no
Suinae in mans ancestors. Human
hogs are made, not born. Greed is
not part of our inheritance, nor to
the stuff we are made of has it b.
Ologic value.
Food has biologic value. We are
born with hunger complex and of
parents who know 1t by our behavior
when that complex begins to act. Their
reaction brings US In contact with food.
That contact-physical and chemical
releases the sucking reflex, which con-
tinues until the stomach signals
STOP" The hunger complex salts
fled. we are not hungry. The hunger
mechanism retlres and the infant can
give Its mind to other matters. Or,
as we say, we can now get down to
business!
That business" may be "big," but
It ends with, Where shall we eat?
Later, what shall we eat2 These ques-
tons are big business to millions Of
peopIe--among the important prob
lens Of life"
How are they solved2 In relation
to the hunger complex and the body's
reQuirementsf Or in reference to
complex appetite which ranges from
soup to nuts and includes corned beef
and cabbage on Monday, fish on Fri
day, brown bread and beams on Sat
urday. and gorge on Sundays, holt
days, weddings and wakes?
The hunger complex Is a biologic
necessity and begins with a mech
anism of special receptors in mouth
and nose by which we distinguish nox-
iOus physical and chemical stimuli.
We may turn up our nose at many
things, but certain things make us hold
our nose. The bacteria of decay are
enormously important In the nitrogen
cycle, but we prefer our ammonia in
smelling salts. Nor is 1t without BIZ
illogical significance that our taste for
bitter is thousands Of times more
acute than for sweet.
We get hungry for" this or that.
What is back Of that particular hun
ger? What is 1t that makes our mouth
water7 The newborn has never tasted
food. good or bad: how does 1t know
that 1t tastes good or bad. It must
learn. It does learn; by the same
process that life itself learns-by try
Ing. ......
The first meal was the answer to the
hunger complex. The "set" of that
meal was the conditioning factor In
the next one: did II taste like more?"
If It did, the foundation was laid for
an appetite for that kind of food. BY
and by the child is weaned: other ap-
petites are built in by the same tastes
llke-more process. .
SO we come to like this and that,
and this and that kind of cooking, sur.
rOundings, etc.
We AL eat our peck OF dirt" How
oh Iipf aofans9 nhnnn n ea acnnoIoI
ly children with abnormal appetites
for clay. chalk. lead pencil, etc. Chill.
dren experiment; II no harm comes
and they like the taste, they keep II
up. Same way with pickles, mustard,
pepper. gum. Ilcorlce, tobacco. Wheth.
er an appetite is "depraved" or mere
Iy abnormal depends largely on taste,
and taste depends on habit, custom,
social usage. Caterplllars, snakes,
dogs, Overrlpe cheese, sharks fins,
"gamy" game. snalls. frogs, toads, liz
ards, monkeys. grasshoppers, grubs,
dOgfsh, brains. trlpe, birds nests, dev.
llflsh. blood: all favorlte dlshes-some-
where, some time. Each man to his
own.
Man must eat: II Is his nature.
When. where, what depend on his nur.
ture. Hunger Is the best sauce. And
the best hunger producer is chopplng
wood. After that come all other forms
of physical work. The body we In.
herlt was built up by work, its func
tiOning apparatus is arranged for work.
When we do not work our body must
make other arrangements. Civilization
furnishes these In the form OF "Instl
tutlons." They are a credit to civil.
iEation. We shall require more, for we
are only at the beginning Of prog
ress."
(e) by GeorRa A. Dorsey.)
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