THE BLOOD AND ITS CIRCULATION 345 



so that headache, vomiting, and even fainting may be 

 produced by a smell or flavour which was previously 

 found a favourite beyond all others. 



So it is with this great and mysterious thing — the 

 blood. The sight of it nearly always produces emotion 

 and excitement, but if these emotions are not accom- 

 panied by an unreasoning joy and delight, they may result 

 in equally unreasoning and uncontrollable disgust, horror, 

 and often a sudden and unaccountable collapse. Some 

 time ago in a popular lecture on the colouring matter of 

 the blood I had no sooner said the word " blood " than a 

 gentleman in the front row fainted and had to be carried 

 out. Men are more susceptible to this curious effect of 

 the sight or thought of blood than women. Often they 

 do not know that they are so, and are as astonished and 

 perplexed by the sudden fainting as are onlookers and 

 as are, for the matter of that, physiologists and psy- 

 chologists. It is a common experience of medical men 

 who vaccinate adults, when there is a scare about small- 

 pox, that at the sight of a tiny drop of blood caused by 

 scratching the arm with a lancet, men frequently faint, 

 whilst women rarely do so. Great, burly, red-coated 

 soldiers, and also athletic schoolboys, have been especi- 

 ally noted as fainting when vaccinated. Maid-servants 

 rarely faint under this absurdly trivial ordeal, whilst the 

 butler and the valet much more frequently do so. Here 

 is, indeed, a curious and unexpected difference between 

 |t men and women which I commend to the consideration 

 of those who are discussing the desirability of admitting 

 women to the parliamentary franchise. It is an unex- 

 plained instance of the influence of the mind on the 

 body, and until it is better understood, one must not 

 conclude that the difference is a proof of superior fitness 

 for participation in political r flairs. 



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