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Show 308 FEAR AND HORROR. CHAP. XII. part, through these same principles. Men, during numberless generations, have endeavoured to escape frorn their enemies or danger by headlong flight, or by violently struggling with then1 ; and such great exertions will have caused the heart to beat rapidly, the breathing to be hurried, the chest to heave, and the nostrils to be dilated. As these exertions have often been prolonged to the last extremity, the final result will have been utter prostration, pallor, perspiration, trembling of all the muscles, or their complete relaxation. And now, whenever the emotion of fear is strongly felt, though it may 110t lead to any exertion, the same t·esults tend to reappear, through the force of inheritance and association. Nevertheless, it is probable that many or most of the above syn1ptoms of terror, such as the beating of the heart, the trembling of the muscles, cold perspiration, &c., are in large part directly due to the disturbed or interrupted transmission of nerve-force from the cerebro-spinal system to various parts of the body, owing to the mind being so powel'fully affected. We may confidently look to this cause, independently of habit and association, in such cases as the modified secretions of the intestinal canal. and the failure of certain glands to act. With respect to the involuntary bristling of the hair, we have good reason to believe that in the case of animals this action, however it may have originated, serves, together with eertain voluntary n1ovements, to make them appear terrible to their enemies; and as the same involuntary and voluntary actions are performed by animals nearly related to man, we are led to believe that man has retained through inheritance a relic of them, now become useless. It is certainly a remarkable fact, that the minute unstriped muscles, by which the hairs thinly scattered over man's almost naked body CHAP. XII, CONOLUSION. 309 are erected, should have b n pre erv d to the pres nt day; and ~hat they should till contract under th same ~motion , namely, t rror and rage, which cau e the haus to. stand on nd in the lower members of the Order to which man belongs. |
