190 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LAUGHTER. 



nervous system in general discharges itself on the muscular 

 system in general : either with or without the guidance of 

 the will. The shivering produced by cold, implies irregular 

 muscular contractions, which, though at first only partly 

 involuntary, become, when the cold is extreme, almost 

 wholly involuntary. &quot;When you have severely burnt your 

 linger, it is very difficult to preserve a dignified composure : 

 contortion of face, or movement of limb, is pretty sure to 

 follow. If a man receives good news with neither change 

 of feature nor bodily motion, it is inferred that he is not 

 much pleased, or that he has extraordinary self-control 

 either inference implying that joy almost universally pro 

 duces contraction of the muscles ; and so, alters the ex 

 pression, or attitude, or both. And when we hear of tho 

 feats of strength which men have performed when their 

 lives were at stake when we read ho\v, in the energy of 

 despair, even paralytic patients have regained for a time 

 the use of their limbs ; AVC see still more clearly the rela 

 tions between nervous and muscular excitements. It be 

 comes manifest both that emotions and sensations tend to 

 generate bodily movements, and that the movements arc 

 vehement in proportion as the emotions or sensations nre 

 intense.* 



This, however, is not the sole direction in which ner 

 vous excitement expends itself. Viscera as well as muscles 

 may receive the discharge. That the heart and blood 

 vessels (which, indeed, being all contractile, may in a re 

 stricted sense be classed with the muscular system) aro 

 quickly aileclcd by pleasures and pains, M - e have daily 

 proved to us. Every sensation of any acutencss acceler 

 ates the pulse ; and how sensitive the heart is to emotions, 

 is testified by the familiar expressions which use heart and 



* For numerous illustrations see c^ay on &quot; The Origin and Function 

 of Music.&quot; 



