The Emotions. 779 



and blood supply are diverted to them, and so much less energy is left 

 to operate the toe. This is the same in principle and operation as the 

 interfering effect of the will, or of an emotion upon another emotion, 

 or upon a reflex or instinctive action. If a lady feels herself about to 

 blush she cannot stop it by simply wishing to ; that would only aggravate 

 the expression by directing more attention to it. But if her thoughts 

 could be diverted from herself to some external object, a new center of 

 attention would be established in the brain, and a new direction given to 

 the blood supply, and the blush relieved. 



Some of the movements which follow from excessive emotions, are 

 those which tend to ward off, or counteract the cause which produces 

 the uneasy state, and we fall into them as a result of habit, very often, 

 when they do not help us directly, except in the way mentioned above, 

 of diverting the energy and reducing the intensity of the uneasy state. 

 In such cases the action has, through the habit of the organs, become 

 automatic, so that the excitement glides into a frictionless channel, 

 which, at some time in the remote past, might have been traversed only 

 by a purposive movement. But a large number of emotional actions 

 are not purposive, and never were. The facial expressions of children 

 under pain or pleasure, must be regarded as the effects of the overflow 

 of stimulations into channels of least resistance, indeed, but their gri- 

 maces and contortions could never have been purposive. At the same 

 time, however, it is easy to see how they might have been of service in 

 calling attention to their wants, and so, by selection, have become fixed 

 and constant. The effects of the emotions on the different secretions, of 

 course, were never purposive, and most of them are not under any sort 

 of voluntary control. The change in the color of the hair is one re- 

 markable example. There are many cases in which, under the influence 

 of terror, it has changed from black to white in one night, and one 

 case is recorded in which the hair of a criminal in India, brought out 

 for execution, changed color so rapidly it could be perceived by the eye. 

 Some effects on the secretion of the milk glands have been mentioned in 

 a former chapter. This secretion is very susceptible to disturbances of sev- 

 eral of the emotions, and so are those of the liver, the kidneys, the sali- 

 vary glands, the tear glands, the stomach and intestines. The heart and some 

 of the bloodvessels, too, are strongly affected by appropriate emotions. 



It is reported that the facial nerve may become so paralyzed as to de- 

 stroy the expression, the tension of the muscles becoming, in part, re- 

 laxed, and the mouth drawn to one side. The ordinary automatic 

 movements of expression, and involuntary winking, do not take place. 

 Yet, there may be still voluntary power to contract the muscles of the 

 face, and to wink the eyelids. This would happen if the motor fibres 

 leading from the medulla oblongata to the face were to become paratyzed, 



