As the muscles of the chest
and vocal organs are habitually used, these will be particularly liable
to be acted on, and loud, harsh screams or cries will be uttered.
But the advantage derived from outcries has here probably come
into play in an important manner; for the young of most animals,
when in distress or danger, call loudly to their parents for aid,
as do the members of the same community for mutual aid.
[6] Muller (`Elements of Physiology,' Eng. translat. vol. ii. p. 932) in
speaking of the nerves, says, "any sudden change of condition of whatever kind
sets the nervous principle into action." See Virchow and Bernard on the same
subject in passages in the two works referred to in my last foot-note.
[7] H. Spencer, `Essays, Scientific, Political,' &c., Second Series,
1863, pp. 109, 111.
[8] Sir H. Holland, in speaking (`Medical Notes and Reflexions,'
1839, p. 328) of that curious state of body called the _fidgets_,
remarks that it seems due to "an accumulation of some cause
of irritation which requires muscular action for its relief."
Another principle, namely, the internal consciousness
that the power or capacity of the nervous system is limited,
will have strengthened, though in a subordinate degree,
the tendency to violent action under extreme suffering.
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