324 BLUSHING. Chap. XIII. 



a severe headache by burning the skin with strong lotion, 

 depends, I presume, on the same principle. 



Dr. Browne has often administered to his patients 

 the vapour of the nitrite of amyl, 22 which has the singu- 

 lar property of causing vivid redness of the face in from 

 thirty to sixty seconds. This flushing resembles blush- 

 ing in almost every detail: it begins at several distinct 

 points on the face, and spreads till it involves the whole 

 surface of the head, neck, and front of the chest; but 

 has been observed to extend only in one case to the ab- 

 domen. The arteries in the retina become enlarged; 

 the eyes glisten, and in one instance there was a slight 

 effusion of tears. The patients are at first pleasantly 

 stimulated, but, as the flushing increases, they become 

 confused and bewildered. One woman to whom the 

 vapour had often been administered asserted that, as 

 soon as she grew hot, she grew muddled. With persons 

 just commencing to blush it appears, judging from their 

 bright eyes and lively behaviour, that their mental pow- 

 ers are somewhat stimulated. It is only when the blush- 

 ing is excessive that the mind grows confused. Therefore 

 it would seem that the capillaries of the face are affected, 

 both during the inhalation of the nitrite of amyl and 

 during blushing, before that part of the brain is affected 

 on which the mental powers depend. 



Conversely when the brain is primarily affected, the 

 circulation of the skin is so in a secondary manner. Dr. 

 Browne has frequently observed, as he informs me, scat- 

 tered red blotches and mottlings on the chests of epileptic 

 patients. In these cases, when the skin on the thorax or 

 abdomen is gently rubbed with a pencil or other object, 

 or, in strongly-marked cases, is merely touched by the 



22 See also Dr. J. Crichton Browne's Memoir on this sub- 

 ject in the 'West Riding- Lunatic Asylum Medical Report,' 

 1871, pp. 95-98. 



