Chap. XIII. BLUSHING. 309 



CHAPTER XIII. 



Self-attention — Shame — Shyness — Modesty: 



Blushing. 



Nature of a blush — Inheritance — The parts of the body 

 most affected — Blushing- in the various races of man — 

 Accompanying' gestures — Confusion of mind — Causes of 

 blushing- — Self-attention, the fundamental element — 

 Shyness — Shame, from broken moral laws and conven- 

 tional rules — Modest}' — Theory of blushing' — Kecapitu- 

 lation. 



Blushing is the most peculiar and the most human 

 of all expressions. Monkeys redden from passion, but it 

 would require an overwhelming amount of evidence to 

 make us believe that any animal could blush. The red- 

 dening of the face from a blush is due to the relaxation 

 of the muscular coats of the small arteries, bv which 

 the capillaries become filled with blood; and this de- 

 pends on the proper vaso-motor centre being affected. 

 Xo doubt if there be at the same time much mental agi- 

 tation, the general circulation will be affected; but it is 

 not due to the action of the heart that the network of 

 minute vessels covering the face becomes under a sense 

 of shame gorged with blood. We can cause laughing 

 by tickling the skin, weeping or frowning by a blow, 

 trembling from the fear of pain, and so forth; but we 

 cannot cause a blush, as Dr. Burgess remarks, 1 bv 



7 O 7 %/ 



1 ' The Physiology or Mechanism of Blushing',' 1839, p. 

 156. I shall have occasion often to quote this work in the 

 present chapter. 



