Fear

CHAPTER		PAGE
	Introduction	[1]
I.	How the Brain works	[20]
II.	Reflex Action and the Functions of the Spinal Cord	[32]
III.	The Brain	[50]
IV.	The Circulation of the Blood in the Brain during Emotion	[64]
V.	Pallor and Blushing	[87]
VI.	The Beating of the Heart	[102]
VII.	Respiration and Oppression	[121]
VIII.	Trembling	[134]
IX.	The Expression of the Face	[155]
X.	The Expression of the Forehead and Eye	[167]
XI.	The Physiognomy of Pain	[185]
XII.	A Few Phenomena Characteristic of Fear	[213]
XIII.	Fear in Children. Dreams	[226]
XIV.	Fright and Terror	[236]
XV.	Maladies Produced by Fear	[249]
XVI.	Hereditary Transmission. Education	[262]

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG.		PAGE
1.	Pulse of the Human Brain during Sleep	[78]
2.	Balance for the Study of the Circulation of the Blood in Man	[96]
3.	Curve showing Cardiac Pulsations of a quiet Dog	[109]
4.	Cardiac Pulsation during Emotion	[111]
5.	Normal Cardiac Pulsation	[112]
6.	Alteration of the Cardiac Pulsation through Emotion	[113]
7.	Acceleration of the Cardiac Pulsations through Fear (in A and B)	[115]
	The Physiognomy of Pain Plates I. & II.	To be placed between pages [202] and [203]

INTRODUCTION

I

Never shall I forget that evening! From behind the curtains of a glass door I peered into the large amphitheatre crowded with people. It was my first appearance as a lecturer, and most humbly did I repent having undertaken to try my powers in the same hall in which my most celebrated teachers had so often spoken. All I had to do was to communicate the results of some of my investigations into the physiology of sleep, and yet, as the hour drew nearer, stronger waxed within me the fear that I should become confused, lose myself, and finally stand gaping, speechless before my audience. My heart beat violently, its very strings seemed to tighten, and my breath came and went, as when one looks down into a yawning abyss. At last it struck eight. As I cast a last glance at my notes, I became aware, to my horror, that the chain of ideas was broken and the links lost beyond recall. Experiments performed a hundred times, long periods which I had thought myself able to repeat word for word—all seemed forgotten, swept away as though it had never been.

My anguish reached a climax. So great was my perturbation that the recollection of it is dim and shadowy. I remember seeing the usher touch the handle of the door, and that, as he opened it, I seemed to feel a puff of wind in my face; there was a singing in my ears, and then I found myself near a table in the midst of an oppressive silence, as though, after a plunge in a stormy sea, I had raised my head above water and seized hold of a rock in the centre of the vast amphitheatre.