THE EMOTIONS. 446 



of its own ; but it would take a genius for felicity to dis- 

 cover any dasli of redeeming quality in the feeling of dry 

 and shrunken sorrow.— Our author continues : 



" If the smaller vessels of the lungs contract so that these organs 

 become anaemic, we have (as is usual under such conditions) the feeling 

 of insufficient breath, and of oppression of the chest, and these tor- 

 menting sensations increase the sufferings of the griever, who seeks 

 relief by long-drawn sighs, ijistinctively, like evei-y one who lacks 

 breath from whatever cause.* 



* The broncliiiil tubes may be contracted as well as the ramifications of 

 the pulmonary artery. Professor J. Henle has, amongst his Anthropolo- 

 giscbe Vortriige, au exquisite one on the ' Natural History of the Sigh,' ia 

 which he represents our inspirations as the result of a battle between the 

 red muscles of our skeleton, ribs, and diaphragm, and the white ones of 

 the lungs, which seek to narrow the calibre of the air-tubes. " In the 

 normal state the former easily conquer, but under other conditions they 

 either conquer with dithculty or are defeated. . . . The contrasted emo- 

 tions express themselves in similarly contrasted wise, by spasm and paraly- 

 sis of the imstriped muscles, and for the most part alike in all the organs 

 which are provided with them, as arteries, skin, and bronchial tubes. The 

 coutriist among the emotions is generally expressed by dividing them into 

 exciting and depressing ones. It is a remarkable fact that the depressing 

 emotions, like fear, horror, disgust, increase the contraction of these smooth 

 muscles, whilst the exciting emotions, like joy, anger, etc , make them 

 relax. Contrasts of temperature act similarh', cold like the depressing, 

 and warmth like the exciting, emotions. Cold produces pallor and goose- 

 flesh, warmth smooths out the skin and widens the vessels. If one notices 

 the imcomfortable mood brought about by strained expectation, anxiety 

 before a public address, vexation at an unmerited affront, etc., one finds that 

 the suffering part of it concentrates itself principally in the chest, and that 

 it consists in a soreness, hardly to be called pain, felt in the middle of the 

 breast and due to an unpleasant resistance which is offered to the move- 

 ments of inspiration, and sets a limit to their extent. The insulficieucy of 

 the diaphragm is obtruded upon consciousness, and we tr}^ by the aid of 

 the external voluntary chest-muscles to draw a deeper breath. [This is the 

 sigh.] If we fail, the unpleasantness of the situation is increased, for then to 

 our mental distress is added the corporeally repugnant feeling of lack of air, 

 a slight degree of suffocation. If, on the contrary, the outer muscles over- 

 come the resistance of the inner ones, the oppressed breast is lightened. 

 We think we speak symbolically when we speak of a stone weighing on 

 our heart, or of a burden rolled from off our breast. But reallj^ we only 

 express the exact fact, for we should have to raise the entire weight of the 

 atmosphere (about 820 kilog.) at each inspiration, if the air did not balance 

 it by streaming into our lungs." (P. 55.) It must not be forgotten that an 

 inhibition of the inspiratory centre similar to that produced by exciting 

 the superior laryngeal nerve may possibly play a part in these phenomena. 

 For a very interesting discussion of the respiratory difiiculty and itsconnec 



