ed declaiming his lines
in a monotone, without gestures or play of expression of any sort, but
it would also be impossible for him to feel even the counterfeit
sensation which he is supposed to represent. So definite and so well
recognized is this connection, that many actors take some little time,
as they express it, to "warm up" to their part, and can be visibly seen
working themselves up to the pitch of emotion desired for expression by
twitching muscles, contractions of the countenance, and catchings of the
breath. This last performance, by the way, is not by any means confined
to the stage, but may be seen in operation in clashes and disagreements
in real life. An individual who knows his case to be weak, or himself to
be lacking in determination, can be seen working himself up to the
necessary pitch of passion or of obstinacy. There is even a lovely old
fairy-tale of our schoolboy days, which is still to be found in ancient
works on natural history, to the effect that the King of Beasts himself
was provided with a small, horny hook or spur at the end of his tail,
with which he lashed himself into a fury before springing upon his
enemy!

What, then, will be the physical effect of a shock or fright or furious
outburst of anger upon the vital secretions? Obviously, that any
processes which require a full or unusually large share of blood-supply
for their carrying out will be instantly stopped by the diversion of
this from their secreting cells, in the wall of the stomach, in the
liver, or in the capillaries of the brain, to the great muscular masses
of the body, or by some strange, atavistic reflex into the so-called
"abdominal pool," the portal circulation. The familiar results are just
what might have been expected. The brain is so suddenly emptied of blood
that connected thought becomes impossible, and in extreme cases we stand
as one paralyzed, until the terror that we would flee from crashes down
upon us, or we lose consciousness and swoon away. If the process of
digestion happens to be going on, it is instantly stopped, leaving the
food to ferment and putrefy and poison the body-tissues which it would
otherwise have nourished. The cells of the liver may be so completely
deprived of blood as to stop forming bile out of broken-down blood
pigment, and the latter will gorge every vessel of the body and escape
into the tissues, producing jaundice.

Every one knows how the hearing of bad news or the cropping up of