344 BLUSHING. Chap. XIII. 



the whole surface of his body would have been attended 

 to. Our self-attention is excited almost exclusively by 

 the opinion of others, for no person living in absolute 

 solitude would care about his appearance. Every one 

 feels blame more acutely than praise. Now, whenever 

 we know, or suppose, that others are depreciating our 

 personal appearance, our attention is strongly drawn 

 towards ourselves, more especially to our faces. The 

 probable effect of this will be, as has just been explained, 

 to excite into activity that part of the sensorium which 

 receives the sensory nerves of the face; and this will 

 react through the vaso-motor system on the facial capil- 

 laries. By frequent reiteration during numberless gen- 

 erations, the process will have become so habitual, in 

 association with the belief that others are thinking of 

 us, that even a suspicion of their depreciation suffices 

 to relax the capillaries, without any conscious thought 

 about our faces. With some sensitive persons it is enough 

 even to notice their dress to produce the same effect. 

 Through the force, also, of association and inheritance 

 our capillaries are relaxed, whenever we know, or imag- 

 ine, that any one is blaming, though in silence, our 

 actions, thoughts, or character; and, again, when we 

 are highly praised. 



On this hypothesis we can understand how it is that 

 the face blushes much more than any other part of the 

 body, though the whole surface is somewhat affected, 

 more especially with the races which still go nearly 

 naked. It is not at all surprising that the dark-coloured 

 races should blush, though no change of colour is visible 

 in their skins. From the principle of inheritance it is 

 not surprising that persons born blind should blush. 

 We can understand why the young are much more af- 

 fected than the old, and women more than men; and 

 why the opposite sexes especially excite each other's 



