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1162 THE LEADER. rSA-nmPAV.
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We should do our utmost to encourage the...
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THE HAYTHORHE F foFEfflmm No. IV.* A TIT...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Books On Our Tabl1l A 1'Lanfor The Forma...
articles which formerly appeared in Fraser ' s Magazine , and , although not all that we could desire , are nevertheless , sensible and graphic sketches , forming very attractive railway volumes , —their bold type and convenient form admirably suiting thorn to railway reading . Household Chemistry ; or , Rudiments of the Science Applied to Every-day Life . By Albert J . Bernays , E . C . S . New and Enlarged Edition . Sampson . Low and Son The call for a second edition implies that this work has its attractiveness , although we cannot congratulate Mr . Bernays on the attractiveness of his exposition . It is addressed to children and the uninformed , but , being little more than a crude collection of facts , and those facts not popularly stated , it misses its aim . However , a man cannot even collect facts together on such subjects as the chemistry of the atmosphere , the chemistry of breakfast , dinner , fermentation , china , glass , and metals , without arresting the attention of the yoQng .
A New Introduction to Logic . J- W " . Parker and Son-THI 3 is really an admirable little book ! In the compass of sixty pages it gives the main outlines of logic , so that rising from it , the student may attack with success any of the more elaborate treatises , if he think fit ; though our advice would be to content himself with this broad survey of the subject , and not waste time in learning the names of his tools . The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebnhr . Vol . III . Chapman and Hall . Elementary Braving . „ _ . _ _ . Chapman and Hall . Ireland considered a * a Field for Investment or Residence . By W . B . Webster . Hodges and Smith . JRhvming Dictionary for the Ute of Young Poets . Jam 4 , Ko SSBiographical MagZine . J ^ J . Pftssmore . Edwards . An Atlas of the Battles of the British Armies . By James Wyld . wu- ^ i ' Vn Liverpool a Few Years Since . Whittaker and Co . The Cherished Spring . By C . Wills . t ? jLf « ' 8 tamboul , andtheSeaqfGems . ¦ „ , , K . Bentley . The British Controversialist . Houlston and Stoneman . The Portrait Gallery . " * Orr aud Co # Writings of Douqlat Jerrold—Punch ' s Letter ) to his Son . Punch Office . Bleak kouse-Sponge ' s Sporting Tour . Bradbury and Evans . The Dodd Family Abroad . m n Chapman and Hall . The Picture Pleasure Book . —Grimm's Household Stories . —TJie Charm . Addey and Co . Julii Cmsari ' s Commentarii de Bella Gallico , with Notes . By Georgo Long . Whittaker and Co . Lawton's Merchant ' s Magazine . T ' - £ r' f ^ ^ The Reasoner . Part LXXX . James Watson . The Some Circle . . W . S . Johnson . The Christian Examiner . John 9 , hi $ *? - The History of the Battles qfLigny , Quatre Bras , and Waterloo . »• - Boom .
1162 The Leader. Rsa-Nmpav.
1162 THE LEADER . rSA-nmPAV .
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I ^ nrtfnlin .
We Should Do Our Utmost To Encourage The...
We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages ¦ . itself . —Goethe .
The Haythorhe F Fofefflmm No. Iv.* A Tit...
THE HAYTHORHE F foFEfflmm No . IV . * A TITEOltY OF TEARS AND LAUGHTER . f UERE can be little doubt that the various bodily acts , which we class as the natural language of the passions , " have eacli a biological meaning . The changes of face and voice , which we are apt to regard simply as indices of certain mental states , and as having no purpose but to express these states , will probably be found , when analyzed ,
to he the collateral results of some necessary vital acts . In the blush of shame , and in the sudden pallor accompanying fear or great anger , the physiological student will sit once recognise disturbances of the circulation consequent upon the sudden demand for blood made by excited faculties . A sigh he will understand as a supplementary act of respiration—possibly suspecting also , that the previous slow breathing it implies serves as a sedative to painful emotion , by diminishing vital activity . And so with frowns and grindings of the teeth and tremblings , nil of which may be more or less distinctly traced to certain functional necessities .
Assuming that tears and laughter come within this same : category , we shall at once greatly narrow the field of inquiry respecting their physiological nature , by calling to mind thsit , like other munifestsitions of emotion , they must primarily depend upon states of the brain ; but that , unlike other such manifestations , they depend upon generic , and not upon specific , states of it . Neither of them is peculiar to any one feeling ; but either , and sometimes both , may occur when any feeling becomes intense ; We do not laugh only from a perception of the ludicrous : great joy , proceeding from the gratification of whatever desire , is liable to produce the same effect as ji him mot . The miser chuckles over his treasures , and the cunning schemer over a successful p iece of dishonesty ; the smile of a little girl , just presented with a handsome doll , often ends in a giggle . Tin ;
salutations of attached friends , meeting after long separation , are broken by short laughs . A fine poetical image , will raise n smile ; and probably many will recollect , as I do myself , laughing over the solutions of dillicult mathematical problems . Similarl y with tears . Not only an : they produced by all kinds of painful emotion—by sorrow , however caused , by vexation , sometimes by rage-but by many pleasurable emotions also , when very-intense . We have- tears of joy , as well as of ^ rief ; and these accompany , not one species of joy only , but various species . Further , it should be remarked , as evidencing the common relationship of tears and laughter to great mental excitement , that either , when carried to alt extreme , is accompanied by the other . We may laugh till our eyes run over , and we may cry , or , at . least , women may , till hysterical laughter is produced . » Bco Leader , Nob . 03 , 104 , 1 U 6 .
Connected , then , as both these phenomena are with extreme cerebral activity of various kinds , both pleasurable and painful , we may reasonably suspect that they are directly related to some constant pre-requisite of ex treme cerebral activity ; and the constant pre-requisite which at once suggests itself is—a large supply of blood . With thebrain , as with every other organ , the amount of blood varies , within certain limits , as the amount of function performed . Great deficiency of blood in the brain causes fainting , that is , a suspension of cerebral action ; whilst great excess , up to a certain point , produces delirium . And between these extremes ' every exaltation of activity demands , other things equal , an increased supply of blood . Let us , then , inquire whether tears and laughter are not in some way caused by distention of the cerebral arteries .
All the tissues of the body are fed by the serum , which niters through the walls of the capillary bloodvessels . No longer surrounded by the muscular and protective layers which cover the larger arteries , these hairlike tubes consist of the pellucid , structureless membrane forming the lining of the larger tubes , out of which . they branch ; and through this delicate membrane continually oozes the albumenous or nutritive portion of the blood , to be thereupon absorbed by the neighbouring tissue-cells . In health , and under an ordinary state of the circulation , this oozing goes on at an uniform rate ; but it may be greatly accelerated from either of two causes : diminution in the thickness of the blood , or increase in the
pressure of it . Every one who has used a filter , knows that a thin fluid percolates faster than a thick one ; and that , with the same fluid , percolation is accelerated by pouring more into the filter—that is , by addirjo- to the pressure . The excess of capillary nitration produced by undue thinness of the blood , is most markedly seen in dropsy , which arises either when the digestive system has finally failed to do its work , or when the oxidation of the tissues has been temporarily greatly in excess of the assimilation , as in scarlet-fever , Which is commonly followed by dropsy . A minor phenomenon , having the same essential nature , is seen in that puffiness under the eyes which accompanies old age , and debility , and the fatigue of strong people . On the other hand , that excess of capillary filtration caused by increased pressure of blood , is liable to' occur wherever there is great local
excitement of the circulation . Up to a certain point , the more rapid oozing of serum , consequent upon the greater distention of the ultimate bloodvessels , is merely proportionate to the extra demand of the muscle , or gland , or viscus , as the case may be ; but , passing this point , the oozing appears to go on at higher rate , and produces an accumulation of fluid in the adjacent tissues . The simplest example of this is a blister , which , whether caused by friction , or by the sun , or by an irritating application , is always preceded by distention of the neighbouring capillaries . Similarly is it with the exudations of serum that accompany inflammation , whether seen in the tumefaction attending local injuries , or in the effusions consequent on such a disease as pleurisy . And thus , too , arise those local accumulations of serum which follow over-excited and inflammatory states of the
brain . The cause and function of tears will now be readily comprehended . They are due to unusual distention of the cerebral bloodvessels , and they have the effect of diminishing tbat distention and its accompanying dangers . On referring to anatomical plates of the vascular system , it will be seen , that just before its entrance into the brain , each internal carotid artery gives off a branch—the ophthalmic artery—to supply the eye and its appendages ,
including the lachrymal gland . Hence it happens that when there is great cerebral excitement—that is , when the internal carotids are greatly distended , the ophthalmic arteries and their branches are greatly distended too , and thus the capillaries of the lachrymal glands are subject to the same pressure as the capillaries of the brain . Under ordinary circumstances , the lachrymal glands secrete no more fluid than is needful for lubricating the eyes ; hut , as with other glands , an unusual pressure of blood causes them to exude their secretion at an unusual rate . And thus , at times of high
cerebral activity , when , as we have seen , they are subject to this unusual pressure , they permit a rapid filtration of modified serum ( tears ); and , by doing this , lessen the distention of the bloodvessels of the brain , and the accompanying liability to bursting or serous cllusion . The lachrymal glands , therefore , serve , not metaphorically , but literally , as safety-valves ; and tears may be regarded as a spontaneous and economical kind ol bloodletting . From this point of view , it will at once be seen why tears are liable to accompany both pleasurable and painful emotions when they become intense . We may perceive also how it happens that during periods of much excitement , persons of active brain shed tears without any assignable cause . And , further , it becomes clear that there is truth in the common notion ,
that grief is relieved by having " a good cry . " Before considering the physiological meaning of laughter , it must he premised that all variations in the action of the lungs , of which laughtei forms one , have a direct relationship to the oxygenution of the blood ; an ( there are many familiar facts which illustrate the need for , and the ( 'fleet of , this relationship . For instance , the deep breathing consequent upo " exertion . All exertion implies increased oxidation of tissue ; this demands a greater supply of oxygen , and this pre-suppost s more rapid respiration-So that only by virtue of such relationship is continuous exertion possible-A parallel fact is seen in the eflect produced on the lungs by change ol temperature . A certain bodily temperature is necessary to the maintenance of the vital actions . This temperature in maintained by the oxidation ol
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_11121852/page/20/
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