Abstract
THE respiratory movements have wide-reaching effects. They not only lead to the flow of air to and from the lungs, but they profoundly influence the circulation of the blood and lymph; they also affect the functions of the abdominal and pelvic viscera by rhythmically compressing and dislocating them. Now, these movements are liable to constant modification in the physiological acts of talking, shouting, singing, laughing, crying, sighing, and yawning (as also in the occasional and semi-pathological acts of sneezing, coughing, vomiting, and hiccoughing), and it therefore follows that these acts are more far-reaching in their effects than would at first sight appear, and hence are worthy of our careful study. This will the more readily be granted when it is added that they affect the body, not only by modifying the respiratory movements and thus producing the effects already mentioned, but by involving the expenditure of a considerable amount of neuro-muscular energy, and by inducing definite psychic phenomena which themselves have their physical accompaniments.
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The Physiology of the Emotions1. Nature 56, 305–307 (1897). https://doi.org/10.1038/056305a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/056305a0