30 Journal of Comparative Neurology. 



ing much too violently. At the same time shocks or flashes, 

 as of electrical discharges, so violent as to be almost painful, 

 pass one after another through his body and limbs. Then in a 

 kw minutes he falls into a condition of the most intense fear. 

 He is not afraid of anything ; he is simply afraid. His mind 

 is perfectly clear. He looks for a cause of his wretched condi- 

 tion, but sees none. Presently his terror is such that he trem- 

 bles violently and utters low moans, and at this stage there are 

 no tears in his eyes, though his suffering is intense. When the 

 climax of the attack is reached and passed, there is copious 

 flow of tears, or else a mental condition in which the person 

 weeps upon the least provocation. At this stage a large quan- 

 tity of pale urine is passed. Then the heart's action again be- 

 comes normal and the attack passes off" It is not the purpose 

 of this article to suggest remedial or obviating proceedure, but 

 it is obvious that the vaso-motor conditions in hypochondria 

 and nervous acme of all kinds acquire new significance in this 

 connection. 



Another group of phenomena connected with emotional 

 excitement has recently been adverted to. 



In a paper before the International Congress of Experi- 

 mental Physiology, session of 1892, Professor Hugo Miinster- 

 berg details the results of experiments, showing that the emo- 

 tional states react differently on the entensor and flexor systems 

 of skeletal muscles. After having for some time practised 

 moving an index on a scale ten or twenty centimetres centripe- 

 tally and centrifugally, until the distance could be quite accu- 

 rately estimated with closed eyes, he tried the same experiment 

 while experiencing pleasurable and painful emotions. The re- 

 sults are interesting. Purely physical variations, such as would 

 be expected a priori, are seen in the under-estimation of the 

 distance in dull or serious moods, and over-estimation when 

 excited or amused. But psycical variations appear when they 

 would hardly have been expected. Thus in unpleasurable emo- 

 tions the extensor motions are too small, while flexor motions 

 are too large, and during pleasurable emotions the flexor mo- 

 tions are too small and the extensor motions too large. The 



