the interest to the exclusion
of everything else. The conscious mind is not capable of being
occupied by more than one thing at a time. If attention is
concentrated upon external matters, bodily sensations, even extreme
pain, may pass altogether unnoticed. The Mohawk, Lord Macaulay tells
us, hardly feels the scalping-knife as he shouts his death song. The
soldier in the excitement of battle is often bereft of all sense of
pain. On the other hand, the patient who is morbidly self-conscious
becomes oblivious of his surroundings while he suffers intensely from
sensations which are usually not appreciated at all. Self-conscious
children will complain much of breathlessness and a sense of
suffocation, of headache, of palpitation, of intolerable itching, of
the pressure of clothing, or of flushing and a sense of heat.
Excessive introspection influences their conduct in many ways. At
children's parties, for example, they will be found wandering about
unhappy, dazed and unable to feel the reality of the surroundings
which afford such joy to the others; or they may be anxious to join in
play, but finding themselves called upon to take their turn are apt to
stand helplessly inactive, or to burst into tears. At school, though
they may be really quick to learn, they will often be found oblivious
of all that has gone on around them, not from stupidity, but from
inability to dissociate their thoughts from themselves and to
concentrate attention upon the matter in hand. In such a case we must
aim at developing the child's interest to the exclusion of this morbid
introspection. Taking advantage of his individual aptitude, we must
strengthen his hold upon externals in every way possible, and we must
explain to him the nature of his failing and teach him that his
salvation lies in cultivating his capacity for paying attention to
things around him and developing an interest in suitable occupations.

Fainting fits are not uncommon amongst nervous children from about
the sixth year onwards, and are apt to give rise to an unwarranted
suspicion of epilepsy. In other cases fears have been aroused that the
heart may be diseased. In children who faint habitually the nervous
control of the circulation is deficient. We notice that when they are
tired by play, or when they are suffering from the reaction that
follows excitement of any sort, the face is apt to become pale, and
dark lines may appear under the eyes. Yet there may be no true anaemia