112 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



the subject of the physiological concomitants of the emotions 

 are greatly in need of investigation. It has long been suggested 

 that vaso motor changes have much to do with the emotions. 

 The familiar fact that the peripheral vessels become congested in 

 joy and anger alike has been used by Wundt to dispose of the 

 theory of a psychophysical cause of the emotions. This whole 

 subject of the vaso-motor changes accompanying emotion re- 

 quires minute study. The general objection that the sensations 

 accompanying emotions so far as they are due to changes in the 

 blood pressure are insignificant and incapable of producing so 

 striking an effect may be disposed of at once, for we are now 

 taught that the imperceptible innervation sensations in the 

 muscles of the eye ere adequate to determine our judgements 

 and concepts of position and direction even in the dark. It is 

 not inconceivable that changes of blood pressure may occur 

 wiiich now produce no direct sensations but which operate 

 indirectly on the reflexes associated with emotions. That is 

 that, instead of a localizable sensation, the stimulus finds its 

 way to our consciousness in a form which we term pleasure or 

 pain, anger or fear. What we wish here to call attention to is 

 the fact that a habit of self-observation can be formed which will 

 enable one to note the heretofore unsuspected richness and 

 variety of sensations associated with vasomotor changes. Even 

 the vivid reproduction of a painful- event may cause a variety of 

 delicate and indescribable thrills accompanying waves of con- 

 traction passing through various regions of the trunk and limbs. 

 But, to specify particularly, many of my readers will remember 

 the peculiar sensations awakened in childhood by the presence 

 of a pet cat or rabbit. If the recollection is sufficiently distinct 

 you will remember the thrill extending through the entire body^ 

 tingling in the finger tips but especially strong in the visceral 

 regions, to this were added almost tetanic contractions of various 

 muscles with the impulse to seize the object and scjueeze with 

 the utmost force — an impulse only inhibited by the reflection 

 that this would give pain to the object of affection, and among 

 the most remarkable of these phenomena was strong contraction 

 ot the masseters and other jaw muscles accompanied by intense 

 but pleasurable tingling at the roots of the teeth and in other 

 nerves of the face. The sensation was so powerful as to consti- 



