that others are thinking about us affect our capillary circulation? Sir
C. Bell insists[1331] that blushing is a provision for expression, as
may be inferred from the colour extending only to the surface of the
face, neck, and breast, the parts most exposed. It is not acquired; it
is from the beginning. Dr. Burgess believes that it was designed by
the Creator in order that the soul might have sovereign power of
displaying in the cheeks the various internal emotions of the moral
feelings; so as to serve as a check on ourselves, and as a sign to
others, that we were violating rules which ought to be held sacred.
Gratiolet merely remarks, Or, comme il est dans l ordre de la nature
que l etre social le plus intelligent soit aussi le plus intelligible,
cette faculte de rougeur et de paleur qui distingue l homme, est un
signe naturel de sa haute perfection.
The belief that blushing was SPECIALLY designed by the Creator is
opposed to the general theory of evolution, which is now so largely
accepted; but it forms no part of my duty here to argue on the general
question. Those who believe in design, will find it difficult to
account for shyness being the most frequent and efficient of all the
causes of blushing, as it makes the blusher to suffer and the beholder
uncomfortable, without being of the least service to either of them.
They will also find it difficult to account for negroes and other
dark-coloured races blushing, in whom a change of colour in the skin is
scarcely or not at all visible.
No doubt a slight blush adds to the beauty of a maiden s face; and the
Circassian women who are capable of blushing, invariably fetch a higher
price in the seraolio of the Sultan than less susceptible women.[1332]
But the firmest believer in the efficacy of sexual selection will
hardly suppose that blushing was acquired as a sexual ornament. This
view would also be opposed to what has just been said about the
dark-coloured races blushing in an invisible manner.
The hypothesis which appears to me the most probable, though it may at
first seem rash, is that attention closely directed to any part of the
body tends to interfere with the ordinary and tonic contraction of the
small arteries of that part. These vessels, in consequence, become at
such times more or less relaxed, and are instantly filled with arterial
blood. This tendency will have been much strengthened, if frequent
attention has been paid during many generations to the same part, owing
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