338 BLUSHING. Chap. XIII. 



tion, it will be necessary to give a considerable body 

 of details, bearing more or less directly on this subject. 

 Several observers, 33 who from their wide experience and 

 knowledge are eminently capable of forming a sound 

 judgment, are convinced that attention or consciousness 

 (which latter term Sir H. Holland thinks the more ex- 

 plicit) concentrated on almost any part of the body pro- 

 duces some direct physical effect on it. This applies 

 to the movements of the involuntary muscles, and of the 

 voluntary muscles when acting involuntarily, — to the 

 secretion of the glands, — to the activity of the senses and 

 sensations, — and even to the nutrition of parts. 



It is known that the involuntarv movements of the 

 heart are affected if close attention be paid to them. 

 Gratiolet 34 gives the case of a man, who by continually 

 watching and counting his own pulse, at last caused 

 one beat out of every six to intermit. On the other 

 hand, my father told me of a careful observer, who cer- 

 tainly had heart-disease and died from it, and who posi- 

 tively stated that his pulse was habitually irregular to 

 an extreme degree; yet to his great disappointment it 



23 In England, Sir H. Holland was, I believe, the first to 

 consider the influence of mental attention on various parts 

 of the body, in his ' Medical Notes and Reflections,' 1839, 

 p. 64. This essay, much enlarged, was reprinted by Sir H. 

 Holland in his ' Chapters on Mental Physiology,' 1858, p. 

 79, from which work I always quote. At nearly the same 

 time, as well as subsequently, Prof. Laj'cock discussed the 

 same subject: see ' Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Jour- 

 nal,' 1839, July, pp. 17-22. Also his ' Treatise on the Nerv- 

 ous Diseases of Women,' 1840, p. 110; and ' Mind and Brain,' 

 vol. ii. 1860, p. 327. Dr. Carpenter's views on mesmerism 

 have a nearly similar bearing. The great physiologist 

 Miiller treated (' Elements of Physiology,' Eng. translat. 

 vol. ii. pp. 937, 1085) of the influence of the attention on 

 the senses. Sir J. Paget discusses the influence of the mind 

 on the nutrition of parts, in his ' Lectures on Surgical Pa- 

 thology,' 1853, vol. i. p. 39: I quote from the 3rd edit, re- 

 vised by Prof. Turner, 1870, p. 28. See, also, Gratiolet, De 

 la Phys. pp. 283-287. 



34 De la Phys. p. 283. 



