(1) The state of the mind during a blush, described broadly, is one of confusion, and this is often strongly marked. 'Covered with confusion,' indeed, is a way of describing persons who are in the act of blushing. Darwin says that they 'lose their presence of mind, and utter singularly inappropriate remarks. They are often distressed, stammer, and make awkward movements and strange grimaces.' This excellently describes their condition. Excessive blushers do not rightly know what they are saying, and feel stupid. Burgess says that their answers to questions are 'monosyllabic, vague, and incoherent,' and that they always appear 'abashed and confused.'

The person who blushes has the feeling that his will is overpowered, and he is conscious of a sense of helplessness and flurry. He feels that his eyes are irresistibly borne down, and that he cannot look at the bystanders or bear to be looked at by them.

Dr. Harry Campbell's view of the state of mind in those who are blushing intensely is still stronger, but not, in my opinion, too strong. He says that ' in severe cases it almost amounts to a complete paralysis of the intellect, the individual being unable to pursue any consecutive train of thought.' The stammering and stuttering of those who are blushing are often alluded to and have been frequently observed by myself.

It is not easy to show that in blushing the moral faculty is in confusion as well as the intellect. There is little opportunity for the disclosure of moral disorder, chiefly because of the rapid passing of the condition. And if I think that in blushing, as in dreaming and laughing, the moral faculty is in disorder, I have not much to support the opinion, beyond the knowledge that so many of the forms of intellectual disorder involve, without any doubt, disorder of the moral faculty - the union is so general as to make it improbable that in blushing we have an exception. I make no strain to get further than this.

It is the occurrence of a well marked mental confusion during the act of blushing that gives me an interest in the subject, because it is of such a nature as to prevent any hesitation in regarding it as a transient state of mental disorder. Its being short-lived and evanescent does not change its nature.

These attacks of disordered mind may be very frequent in the young, yet they do no harm, and the recovery from them is quick and complete. It is not quite easy to go further, as it is in dream-thinking and in laughter, and to assert that they do good. This assertion could only be made by a somewhat forced speculation, which would serve no useful purpose. It is enough to say that if in any case the state of mind referred to were prolonged, we should then have a condition of insanity in the ordinary sense, and the individual in whom it occurred would probably require 'care and treatment.'

The rapidity of the manifestation of this mental confusion is a point of great interest, and perhaps of still greater interest is the rapidity of its complete disappearance. It may both come and go with a quickness which many observers call instantaneous. This is correct enough as regards its coming, and though its going, I think, is generally somewhat slower, it is still in many cases extremely rapid. There is another point of much interest in the way blushes may quickly succeed each other - fresh blushes chasing each other over the face - in the fact that the mental confusion goes completely with the disappearing blush and returns with that which follows, the interval being often so short as scarcely to be measurable. So that it seems possible to have attack after attack of disordered mental action and recovery after recovery, the intervals being frequently stated in moments rather than minutes. The possibility of such an occurrence is surprising, and of course it adds to the surprise that no injury seems to follow.

The flush of anger has no connection with the blush of shame, yet in this connection I am reminded that a fit of anger is proverbially accepted as a short madness.

(2) A blush is a good deal more than a mere reddening of the face, neck, and ears. A 'blushful face' is always averted, and has 'a downcast aspect.' The eyes turn towards the earth and the eyelids droop over the eyeballs. The features are in a state of collapse. The blusher seems ' o hide his head for shame.' At least he avoids the gaze of the spectator, and 'looks away,' often moving restlessly from side to side. The whole aspect of the countenance is changed. It loses its wonted animation. The voice is altered. The skin everywhere tingles, and there is a fluttering sensation about the heart. These things readily differentiate the redness of blushing, which 'heightens the charm of beauty,' from the many other invasions of redness on the face, which cannot be said to have that effect.

It is asserted that persons about to blush are conscious of a peculiar sensation in the epigastric region before the reddening of the face actually takes place. My own inquiries, extending now over a long period, indicate that this is generally correct. It may be accepted as certain, 1 think, that the heart and epigastric region exercise a sympathy in nearly every mental emotion, especially if arising suddenly. The heart in a special manner seems to me to show this sympathy. Even slight disturbances of the mind are reflected on its action. It beats more rapidly, and there is some consequent disturbance of the breathing. But the blush comes and goes so quickly that the blusher has little time to become conscious of any antecedent sensations in regions distant from the face, and it is not easy to obtain accounts of them which have much value.

All that I desire to show here is that blushing is more than a clothing of the face and neck with redness.

In that blush which is in some way connected with personal appearance, it is not difficult to see how the face should be averted, but it is not so easy to see why this should happen when there is a moral cause for the blush, that is, when the sense of shame has a moral origin.