340 BLUSHING. Chap. XIII. 



When we direct our whole attention to any one 

 sense, its acuteness is increased; 40 and the continued 

 habit of close attention, as with blind people to that 

 of hearing, and with the blind and deaf to that of touch, 

 appears to improve the sense in question permanently. 

 There is, also, some reason to believe, judging from the 

 capacities of different races of man, that the effects are 

 inherited. Turning to ordinary sensations, it is well 

 known that pain is increased by attending to it; and Sir 

 B. Brodie goes so far as to believe that pain may be felt 

 in any part of the body to which attention is closely 

 drawn. 41 Sir H. Holland also remarks that we become 

 not only conscious of the existence of a part subjected 

 to concentrated attention, but we experience in it various 

 odd sensations, as of weight, heat, cold, tingling, or itch- 

 ing. 42 



Lastly, some physiologists maintain that the mind 



period on any part or organ may ultimately influence its 

 capillary circulation and nutrition. He has given me some 

 extraordinary cases; one of these, which cannot here be 

 related in full, refers to a married woman fifty years of 

 age, who laboured under the firm and long-continued de- 

 lusion that she was pregnant. When the expected period 

 arrived, she acted precisely as if she had been really deliv- 

 ered of a child, and seemed to suffer extreme pain, so that 

 the perspiration broke out on her forehead. The result 

 was that a state of things returned, continuing for three 

 days, which had ceased during the six previous years. Mr. 

 Braid gives, in his ' Magic, Hypnotism,' &c, 1852, p. 95, and 

 in his other works analogous cases, as well as other facts 

 showing the great influence of the will on the mammary 

 glands, even on one breast alone. 



40 Dr. Maudsley has given (' The Physiology and Pa- 

 thology of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. 105), on good authority, 

 some curious statements with respect to the improvement 

 of the sense of touch by practice and attention. It is re- 

 markable that when this sense has thus been rendered 

 more acute at any point of the body, for instance, in a 

 finger, it is likewise improved at the corresponding point 

 on the opposite side of the body. 



41 ' The Lancet,' 1838, pp. 39-40, as quoted by Prof. Lay- 

 cock, ' Nervous Diseases of Women,' 1840, p. 110. 



42 ' Chapters on Mental Physiology,' 1858, pp. 91-93. 



