Whence Hunger

An animal's appetite usually increases with the time it has gone without food. But there seems to be an increasing number of human animals who do not develop an appetite even when undernourished. Professor Anton Julius Carlson, physiologist of the University of Chicago, has found out this animal anomaly and stated so to Chicago dietitians last week. It may explain why office clerks, shoppers, draymen and school children seem to be increasingly satisfied with a sandwich-and-milkshake lunch at the widespreading U. S. "sandwich bars."

Professor Carlson has found, he said, that the stomach has a rhythmic action of its own, with alternate periods of spasm or contraction, lasting a half-hour to an hour and one-half, with periods of rest be tween. Animals from the snail to man, and humans from prematurely born infants to the aged, all show the same phenomenon. It is not a nerve action. The motor nerves are not involved, although action of the sensitory nerves is needed before hunger can be felt. When the sugar content of the blood is low the spasms in the stomach are much greater than when the sugar content is high. Therein may be partial explanation for loss of appetite after candy eating. But why, candy-eaters might ask, do cigaret-smokers lack good appetites?

The Carlson conclusion: "Modern civilization seems to be breeding a race which lacks the normal hunger mechanism."