2i4 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



three processes here mentioned — counterbalancing one emotion with 

 another, denying the existence of the objectionable phenomena, and 

 assertion of self-mastery — combined with belief in the process — and in 

 the operator, form a large part, if not all, of the various systems, when 

 stripped of unessential details. 



The subject proving interesting, more scientific methods were 

 adopted. The best results were attained in subsequent cases, where 

 the subjects were intelligent, by dropping all indirect methods and by 

 simply explaining to the patient that the walls of the capillaries and 

 small arteries of the face, like all others in the body, are composed 

 of circular muscular fibers under the control of special nerves. If 

 the latter are stimulated in a certain manner, they allow the muscle 

 rings to expand, thus increasing the size of the tubes, and allowing 

 more blood to reach the skin, which causes blushing. If these nerves 

 are stimulated in another manner, the rings contract, the bore of the 

 tubes diminishes, the blood supply is cut off, like the stream of water 

 when a garden hose is stepped on, and pallor results. Under normal 

 conditions, these nerves are stimulated in both ways automatically, 

 but by persistent effort it is quite possible to acquire the art of 

 stimulating them at will either way, just as some people learn how to 

 cry at will, instead of being dependent upon saddening emotions. 



Here we have a truth of great importance, which is the founda- 

 tion of all that follows. The action of the organs of the body is quite 

 clearly influenced by mental states, such as fright, embarrassment, 

 sadness, etc. We can cause at will the same effect, which usually 

 only takes place involuntarily, by producing a mental image of an 

 emotional state, by denying the existence of an existing state, or by 

 acquiring the power to give the same kind of stimulus that mental 

 emotions produce without the actual presence of any emotion. The 

 feeling called " faith " is one of the strongest emotional stimuli, and 

 is so powerful that it produces its result, even masking other emo- 

 tions. The belief firmly held that we are about to cry, even where 

 there is no cause of sadness present, will very often elicit real tears. 



If this principle is firmly grasped, logical progress is rapid. An 

 inflammation of any kind is evidently merely an excess of blood supply 

 to the affected part — a sort of local blushing. The converse is an 

 under supply, which starves the cells by failing to provide sufficient 

 nutriment to them, and also poisons them by not removing rapidly 

 enough the lactic, uric, and carbonic acids which are the waste products 

 of all cell activities; for, as we know, the blood resembles those brooks 

 which flow through oriental villages, serving both as sewers and as 

 water supplies for all domestic purposes. The blood, in addition, 

 transports the food assimilated by the digestive organs, the oxygen 

 absorbed by the lungs, and the fluids secreted by the various glands. 



