pale.
I was desirous to learn how far down the body blushes extend; and Sir
J. Paget, who necessarily has frequent opportunities for observation,
has kindly attended to this point for me during two or three years. He
finds that with women who blush intensely on the face, ears, and nape
of neck, the blush does not commonly extend any lower down the body. It
is rare to see it as low down as the collar-bones and shoulder-blades;
and he has never himself seen a single instance in which it extended
below the upper part of the chest. He has also noticed that blushes
sometimes die away downwards, not gradually and insensibly, but by
irregular ruddy blotches. Dr. Langstaff has likewise observed for me
several women whose bodies did not in the least redden while their
faces were crimsoned with blushes. With the insane, some of whom appear
to be particularly liable to blushing, Dr. J. Crichton Browne has
several times seen the blush extend as far down as the collar-bones,
and in two instances to the breasts. He gives me the case of a married
woman, aged twenty-seven, who suffered from epilepsy. On the morning
after her arrival in the Asylum, Dr. Browne, together with his
assistants, visited her whilst she was in bed. The moment that he
approached, she blushed deeply over her cheeks and temples; and the
blush spread quickly to her ears. She was much agitated and tremulous.
He unfastened the collar of her chemise in order to examine the state
of her lungs; and then a brilliant blush rushed over her chest, in an
arched line over the upper third of each breast, and extended downwards
between the breasts nearly to the ensiform cartilage of the sternum.
This case is interesting, as the blush did not thus extend downwards
until it became intense by her attention being drawn to this part of
her person. As the examination proceeded she became composed, and the
blush disappeared; but on several subsequent occasions the same
phenomena were observed.
The foregoing facts show that, as a general rule, with English women,
blushing does not extend beneath the neck and upper part of the chest.
Nevertheless Sir J. Paget informs me that he has lately heard of a
case, on which he can fully rely, in which a little girl, shocked by
what she imagined to be an act of indelicacy, blushed all over her
abdomen and the upper parts of her legs. Moreau also[1308] relates, on
the authority of a celebrated painter, that the chest, shoulders, arms,
and whole body of a girl, who unwillingly consented to serve as a
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