1921] on The Electrical Expression of Human Emotion 291 



occurring about two seconds after its exciting cause is always in one 

 direction, i.e. in the direction of decreased resistance — increased 

 permeability, poro-dilatation, or, if you prefer to think it so, contrac- 

 tion of living matter round pores so as to dilate them. And in many 

 thousands of observations I have never witnessed any similar move- 

 ment in the opposite direction — i.e. in the direction of increased 

 resistance. All that is ever seen in that direction is the gradual 

 remission of a previous deflection in the emotive or excitatory direc- 

 tion. If you regard the question in its psychological aspect, you 

 will soon be satisfied that the matter could not be expected to come 

 out otherwise. Our pleasures and pains are not simple opposites 

 producing opposite physiological effects. Pains are active and 

 exciting states in our conscious life, sharply contrasting with their 

 background. Pleasure is more often merely the subsidence and relief 

 from pain, a gradual recovery of the untroubled state. A pin-prick 

 suddenly excites emotion, and the emotion gradually falls to rest. 

 There is no counterpart pleasure equal and opposite to a pin-prick. 

 Pleasure is of necessity gradual. Too sudden pleasure — joy, as we 

 call it — is exciting, and causes discharge down the nerves that acts 

 precisely like painful excitements and gives rise to electrical effects 

 in the same emotive direction. 



14. We distinguished a few moments ago between imaginatives 

 and positives according as threatened pains produced larger or smaller 

 effects than real pains. It is convenient to draw another kind of 

 distinction according to the extent of body-surface over which the 

 response is manifested. The response to "weak" stimuli in the 

 great majority of men and women is exclusively palmar (and plantar). 

 But with " strong " stimuli, and in certain cases with " weak " stimuli 

 as well, the response can also be manifested by the forearm (and by 

 the leg) as well as by the hand (and foot). Such cases may be 

 designated as " sensitives " to distinguish them from the others who 

 are relatively insensitive, but since these others are in a majority, 

 and it would seem inappropriate to designate the majority of mankind 

 as insensitive, it is better to call them " normals." These two labels, 

 " sensitives " and " normals," are not intended to imply any division 

 into two hard-and-fast categories, but rather a scale of differences 

 grading between two extremes. Indeed, I have satisfied myself in at 

 least one case that a subject classified at a first sitting as " normal " 

 was temporarily raised to the degree of " sensitive " in consequence 

 of a rather violent fit of " temper." 



It is convenient to reserve the designation " insensitive " for 

 cases low down in the normal scale, giving in response to ordinary 

 stimuli little or no palmar reaction— i.e. a doubtful response of the 

 order of 1 per 100 of the initial resistance. 



15. Provisionally, then, our observations can be systematised in 

 accordance with the following scheme : — 



