Here, again, it seems not improbable that if we were repeatedly to
concentrate with great earnestness our attention on the recollection
of our heated faces, the same part of the sensorium which gives us
the consciousness of actual heat would be in some slight degree stimulated,
and would in consequence tend to transmit some nerve-force to
the vaso-motor centres, so as to relax the capillaries of the face.
Now as men during endless generations have had their attention often
and earnestly directed to their personal appearance, and especially
to their faces, any incipient tendency in the facial capillaries to be
thus affected will have become in the course of time greatly strengthened
through the principles just referred to, namely, nerve-force passing
readily along accustomed channels, and inherited habit. Thus, as it
appears to me, a plausible explanation is afforded of the leading
phenomena connected with the act of blushing.
_Recapitulation_.--Men and women, and especially the young,
have always valued, in a high degree, their personal appearance;
and have likewise regarded the appearance of others. The face has
been the chief object of attention, though, when man aboriginally
went naked, the whole surface of his body would have been attended to.
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