920 OP MUSCULAR MOVEMENTS. 



yet this estimate is much below that which might be truly made from the per- 

 formances of a practised vocalist. 1 



4. Of the Influence of Expectant Attention on Muscular Movements, 



923. There is a very curious group of involuntary muscular movements, not 

 yet specially considered, which may be ranked under the general category of 

 ideo-motor actions ; being induced by the state of expectant attention, in which 

 the mind is fully possessed with the idea that a certain action will take place, 

 and is eagerly looking out for its occurrence. Such movements are well known 

 to occur in the muscles connected with the organic functions, and are among 

 the means by which important modifications are produced in those functions by 

 the direction of the mind to them. Thus, as Dr. Holland has remarked, "the 

 action of the heart is often quickened or otherwise disturbed by the mere centring 

 the consciousness upon it, without any emotion or anxiety. On occasions where 

 its beats are audible, observation will give proof of this, or the physician can 

 very often infer it while feeling the pulse; and where there is liability to irregular 

 pulsation, such action is seemingly brought on, or increased, by the eifort of atten- 

 tion, even though no obvious emotion be present." " The same may be said of 

 the parts concerned in respiration. If this act be expressly made the subject of 

 consciousness, it will be felt to undergo some change ; generally to be retarded 

 at first, and afterwards quickened." " The act of swallowing, again, becomes 

 manifestly embarrassed, and is made more difficult by the attention fixed upon it 

 when the morsel to be swallowed comes into contact with the part." 3 And there 

 can be no doubt that the movements of the lower part of the alimentary canal 

 are capable of being affected in a similar manner, since we may frequently trace 

 the rapid descent of the faecal mass into the rectum, when we expect to be shortly 

 able to discharge it ; and it is in great part in this mode that habit operates, in 

 producing a readiness for defecation at particular times, and that bread-pills and 

 other supposititious purgatives unload the bowels. 3 



1 It is said that the celebrated Made. Mara was able to sound 100 different intervals 

 between each tone. The compass of her voice was at least three octaves, or 21 tones ; 

 so that the total number of intervals was 2100, all comprised within an extreme variation 

 of one-eighth of an inch ; so that it might be said that she was- able to determine the con- 

 tractions of her vocal muscles to nearly the seventeen-thousandth of an inch. 



2 See Dr. Holland's "Chapters on Mental Physiology," pp. 16-19. 



3 The Author may mention the two following cases, which have fallen within his own 

 knowledge, as curious illustrations of the influence of mental states upon the movements of 

 the alimentary canal. The first of these occurred in the person of a literary man, of a some- 

 what hypochondriacal temperament, who had been troubled with continual costiveness, for 

 which he had been accustomed to take an aperient pill daily. Finding that this ceased to 

 have its usual effect, and being feaful of increasing his regular dose, he applied for advice 

 to a practitioner, who, having had former experience of what mental agency alone would do, 

 determined to try its effect in this instance. Seating his patient before him, with the abdo- 

 men uncovered, he desired him to fix his attention intently upon his abdominal sensations, 

 and assured him that in a short time he was quite certain that he would begin to feel a 

 movement in his bowels, which would end in a copious evacuation. He himself did nothing 

 but look steadily at his patient, with an air of great determination and confidence, and 

 point his finger at the abdomen, moving it along the arch of the colon, and (as it were) in 

 the course of the convolutions of the small intestines, so as to aid the patient in fixing his 

 attention upon them. In a short time, the expected movements were felt, and a copious 

 evacuation soon followed ; and for some time afterwards, the bowels continued to act freely 

 without medicine. In the other case, a Lecturer at a public Institution was seized with a 

 strong impulse to defecation during his lecture ; and was greatly inconvenienced by the 

 effort necessary to restrain it. Before every subsequent lecture in the same place, the 

 same impulse returned upon him, notwithstanding that he might have previously unloaded 

 his bowels elsewhere. In this case, there was obviously a state of apprehension combined 

 with the simple anticipation ; but the influence of the latter is shown by the fact, that in 

 no other place did this individual experience the impulse in question under the like cir- 

 cumstances. 



