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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 them to railway reading . household Chemistry ; or , Rudiments of the Science Applied to JBkery-d ^ y Life . By Albert J . Bemays , F . 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 young .
A New Introduction to Logic . J- "W . Parker and Son-This 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 .
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The Life and Letters of Barthold George Niebuhr . Vol . III . Chapman and Hall Elementary Drawing . _ _ _ . Chapman and Hall Ireland considered a * a Field for Investment or Betidence . By W . B . Webster . Hodges and Smith . Rhyming Dictionary for the Use of Young Poets . Jam S ? A Ho ? Biographical MagaJne . J . Pasamore . Edwar ^ An Atlas of the Battles of the British Armies . By James Wyld . ™ -. . * . * . a Jt ' Liverpool a Few Tears Since . Whittaker and Co The Cherished Spring . By C . Wills . Joh g Snow . Qtamboul , and the Sea of Gems . J * . iJentley . The British Controversialist . Houlston and Stoneman The Portrait Gallery . W . S . Orr and Co . Writings of Doiiqlas Jerr old—Punch ' s Letters to his Son . Punch Office . Bleak laouse—S ponge' 8 Sporting Tour . Bradbury and f ™™ The Dodd Family Abroad . m Chapman and Hall The Picture Pleasure Book . —Grimm's Household Stories . —The Charm . Addey and Co , Julii CasarVt Commentarii de Bella Oallico , with Notet . By George Long . Whittaker andCo , Lawson ' s Merchant ' s Magazine . _ *¦• * \~ f ^' The Reasoner . Part LX 3 OL James Watson The Some Circle . W - S . Johnson The Christian Examiner . John 9 . * t ? ? £ ' The Sistory of the Battles ofLigny , Quatre Bras , and Waterloo . »• Uootii
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We should do our utmost to encourage the Beautiful , for the Useful encourages itself . —Goethe .
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THE HAYTH © f ? fiE PAPERS , No . IV . * A THEOKY OF TEARS AND LAUGHTER . fHERE can be little doubt that the various bodily acts , which we class as the natural language of the passions , " have each 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 be 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 at 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 , all 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 that , like other manifestations of emotion , they must primarily depend upon states of the brain ; but that , unlike other such manifestations , they depend updH 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 a ban mot . The miser chuckles over his treasures , and the cunning schemer over a ' successful piece of dishonesty ; the smile of a little girl , just presented with a handsome doll , often ends in a giggle . The
salutations of attached friends , meeting after long separation , are broken by short laughs . A fine poetical image will raise a smile ; and probably niany will recollect , as I do myself , laughing over the solutions of difficult mathematical problems . Similarly with tears . Not only are they produced by nM 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 grief ; 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 curried to an 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 .
Connected , then , as both these phenomena are with extreme cereh activity of various kinds , both pleasurable and painful , we may reasonahl suspect that they are directly related to some constant pre-requisite of e treme cerebral activity ; and the constant pre-requisite which at on suggests itself is—a large supply of blood . With the brain , as with evero 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 j whilst great excess , up to a certain point , produces delirium . And between these extremes ' eyerv 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 filters through the walls of the capillary bloodvessels . No longer surrounded by the muscular and protective layers which cover the larger arteries , these hair - like tuhes 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 adding to the pressure . The excess of capillary filtration produced by undue thinness of the blood , is most markedly seen in dropsy , which arises either whea 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 pufBness 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 ^ jby 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 cereb ral bloodvessels , and they have the effect of diminishing that 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 ; but , 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 scrum ( tears ); and , by doing this , lessen the distention of the bloodvessels of the brain , and the accompanying liability to bursting or serous effusion . The lachrymal glands , therefore , serve , not metaphorically , but literally , as sa fety-valves ; and tears may be regarded as a spontaneous and economical kind of
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 nitonse . We may perceive also how it happens that during periods of much ex < " > ment , 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 premised that all variations in the action of the lungs , of which hiugl" <* forms one , have a direct relationship to the oxygenation of the blood ; iin < there arc many familiar filets which illustrate the ? need for , and the « -lu * ° of , this relationship . For instance , the deep breathing consequent upon exertion . All exertion implies increased oxidation of tissue ; tins domain a greater supply of oxygen , and this pie-supposes more rapid res piration . So that only by virtue of such relationship is continuous exertion po « u > A parallel fact is seen in the effect produced on the lungs by change o temperature . A certain bodily temperature is necessary to the maintcniu » c of the vital actions . This temperature is maintained by the oxidation
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* y « o Leader . Nob . 08 , 104 , 185 ,
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lin THE LEADER . [ SATuRDAy .
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1852, page 1192, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1964/page/20/
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