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Dec 2d Cassia

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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 men 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 seraglio of the Sultan than less susceptible women.* (31) 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 161) atten(tion long and closely directed to any part of the body tends to interfere with the ordinary, tonic contraction of the small arteries of that part. These vessels, in consequence then become at such times more or less relaxed, and are instantly filled with arterial blood. Any such This tendency will have been much strengthened, if frequent attention has been paid during

(2

After being carried & shaken

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or to increase, the action of the lacrymal glands is effectual. Some curious cases have been recorded of the power of the mind with women on the mammary glands of women; and still more remarkable ones in relation to the uterine functions.* (38)

As long as When we direct our whole attention to any one sense, its acuteness is increased;* (39) and the continued habit of close attention, as with blind people to that of hearing, and with the blind and deaf to that of touch, appears to improve the sense in question permanently. There is, also, some reason to believe, judging from the capacities of different races of man, that the effects are inherited. Turning to ordinary sensations; it is well known that pain is increased by attending to it; and Sir B. Brodie goes as so far as to state believe that pain may be felt in any part of the body to which attention is closely drawn.* (40) Sir H. Holland also remarks that we become not only conscious of the existence of a part subjected to concentrated attention, but we experience in it various odd sensations, as of weight, heat, cold, tingling, or itching.* (4)

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Dec 2d the 2 terminal pair with midrib directed backwards the other a little forwards, but some variably in other respect.

Part of terminal leaflets get under cover of the other & the whole leaf leaves are half exposed to radiation.

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Lastly some physiologists maintain that the mind can influence the nutrition of any parts of the body. Sir J. Paget has given a curious instance of the local influence, not indeed of the mind, but of the nervous system on the hair. A lady "who is subject to attacks of what is called nervous headache, always finds in the morning after such an one, that some patches of her hair are white, as if powdered with starch. The change is effected in a night, and in a few days after, the hairs gradually regain their dark brownish colour."* (42)

We thus see that close attention certainly affects various parts and organs, which are not properly under the control of the will. By what process an act of attention—perhaps the most wonderful of all the wondrous powers of the mind—is effected, is an extremely obscure subject. According to Müller,* (43) the means by which the sensory cells of the brain are rendered through an act of the will capable susceptible of receiving more intense and distinct impressions, is closely analogous to that by which the motor cells are excited to discharge nerve-force along the power nerves proceeding from them to the voluntary muscles. There are many points of analogy in the action