74 THE PRINCIPLE OF THE DIRECT Chap. III. 



motor system, which regulates the capillary circulation, 

 is much influenced by the mind. With respect to the 

 movements of certain muscles of the face under great 

 suffering, as well as from other emotions, these will be 

 best considered when we treat of the special expressions 

 of man and of the lower animals. 



We will now turn to the characteristic symptoms of 

 Rage. Under this powerful emotion the action of the 

 heart is much accelerated, 9 or it may be much dis- 

 turbed. The face reddens, or it becomes purple from the 

 impeded return of the blood, or may turn deadly pale. 

 The respiration is laboured, the chest heaves, and the 

 dilated nostrils quiver. The whole body often trembles. 

 The voice is affected. The teeth are clenched or ground 

 together, and the muscular system is commonly stimu- 

 lated to violent, almost frantic action. But the gestures 

 of a man in this state usually differ from the purposeless 

 writhings and struggles of one suffering from an agony 

 of pain; for they represent more or less plainly the act 

 of striking or fighting with an enemy. 



All these signs of rage are probably in large part, 

 and some of them appear to be wholly, due to the direct 

 action of the excited sensorium. But animals of all 

 kinds, and their progenitors before them, when attacked 

 or threatened by an enemy, have exerted their utmost 

 powers in fighting and in defending themselves. Un- 

 less an animal does thus act, or has the intention, or at 

 least the desire, to attack its enemy, it cannot properly 

 be said to be enraged. An inherited habit of muscular 

 exertion will thus have been gained in association with 

 rage; and this will directly or indirectly affect vari- 



9 I am much indebted to Mr. A. H. Garrod for having 

 informed me of M. Lorain's work on the pulse, in which 

 a sphygmogram of a woman in a rage is given; and 

 this shows much difference in the rate and other charac- 

 ters from that of the same woman in her ordinary state. 



