1 74 On the Relations between Mind and Muacle, 



The groupe under discussion includes certain actions of the muscles of 

 respiration, which have not received that degree of attention which they 

 deserve. Every one must have noticed the alterations of breathing under 

 the influence of emotion. It becomes quicker or slower, or is interrupted, 

 merely as it would appear in consequence of the excitement of the nervous 

 system ; but the final cause of the derangement is by no means evident. 

 When two or more persons are engaged in some action which requires stealth 

 and silence, it is common for them to remind one another to hold the 

 breath, lest it should be audible. But v^hy should this injunction be ne- 

 cessary ? Under ordinary circumstances, respiration occurs as noiselessly 

 to others as unconsciously to the subject. No other probable solution of 

 the question occurs to me than the following. On occasions of the nature 

 alluded to, the solicitude or mental attention produces an unusual excite- 

 ment of the nervous system, and a consequent hurry of the breathing, 

 which becomes audible ; and it is to restrain this derangement of an or- 

 dinarily quiet action, that the voluntary effort is enjoined. Something also 

 may be due to the prolonged intervals between inspiration and expiration, 

 demanded by those movements in which particular care and nicety are 

 requisite. In such cases the chest must, for longer intervals than ordinary, 

 present a steady immoveable fulcrum to various muscles, a condition which 

 can only be effected by the closure of the windpipe, and by the consequent 

 prevention of the ingress or egress of air. The mere attention of the mind 

 to a sensation, that of hearing, for instance, will likewise cause an irregu- 

 larity of respiration ; a fact familiar to every one who has listened with 

 anxiety to a faint sound, the step of an expected friend, a distant echo, an 

 important whisper, &c. Mere intellectual excitement will produce the 

 same effect. Who has not remarked the hurried or suspended breath of 

 an audience, under the influence of a powerful harangue? 



5. The fifth section embraces those movements which pertain to imitation. 

 Imitation may be active or passive, i. e. prompted by desire or independent 

 of it. The latter only concerns our present subject. One person yawns, 

 or sighs, or laughs, because another does ; a fact utterly inexplicable in 

 the present state of our knowledge.* Any set of muscles may acquire par- 

 ticular actions and assemblages of actions, by passive imitation only ; and 

 to such a degree, indeed, that desire is often vainly employed in opposition 

 to this principle. A child or susceptible female, if frequently in company 

 with a person who winks, or stammers, or faulters in his gait, will fall into 

 similar habits, notwithstanding there may be a variety of inducements for 

 attempting to avoid them. The following passage from Coleridge's "Cliris- 

 tabelle" is a well-drawn picture of involuntary imitation : — 



* Some fancy that they can explain the fact by referring it to sympathy. But this 

 is only comparing it to something equally unintelligible, which occurs in the system 

 of a single iodividual. 



