Chap. XIII. BLUSHING. 343 



his face reddens. This appears to he due, as Mr. Michael 

 Foster informs me, in part to the local action of the 

 heat, and in part to a reflex action from the vaso-motor 

 centres. 46 In this latter case, the heat affects the nerves 

 of the face; these transmit an impression to the sensory 

 cells of the brain, which act on the vaso-motor centre, 

 and this reacts on the small arteries of the face, relax- 

 ing them and allowing them to become filled with blood. 

 Here, again, it seems not improbable that if we were re- 

 peatedly to concentrate with great earnestness our atten- 

 tion on the recollection of our heated faces, the same 

 part of the sensorium which gives us the consciousness 

 of actual heat would be in some slight degree stimulated, 

 and would in consequence tend to transmit some nerve- 

 force to the vaso-motor centres, so as to relax the capil- 

 laries of the face. Now as men during endless genera- 

 tions have had their attention often and earnestly di- 

 rected to their personal appearance, and especially to 

 their faces, any incipient tendency in the facial capil- 

 laries to be thus affected will have become in the course 

 of time greatly strengthened through the principles just 

 referred to, namely, nerve-force passing readily along 

 accustomed channels, and inherited habit. Thus, as it 

 appears to me, a plausible explanation is afforded of the 

 leading phenomena connected with the act of blushing. 



Recapitulation. — Men and women, and especially the 

 young, have always valued, in a high degree, their per- 

 sonal appearance; and have likewise regarded the appear- 

 ance of others. The face has been the chief object of 

 attention, though, when man aboriginally went naked, 



46 See, also, Mr. Michael Foster, on the action of the 

 vaso-motor system, in his interesting- Lecture before the 

 Eoval Institution, as translated in the ' Revue des Cours 

 Scientifiques,' Sept. 25, 18G9, p. 683. 



