a sudden suffusion or redness of the cheeks, excited by a sense of shame, confusion, or surprise, or by the consciousness of some failing or imperfection, real or imaginary.

Blushing is supposed to be produced by a kind of sympathy between several parts of the body, occasioned by the same nerve being extended to them all. Thus the fifth pair of nerves being branched from the brain to the eye, ear, muscles of the lips, cheeks, palate, tongue, and nose, a thing seen or heard that is shameful covers the cheeks with blushes, drawing the blood into the minute vessels there dispersed, and also affecting the eye and ear in a similar manner. For the same reason it is, that a savoury thing seen or smelled affects the glands and parts of the mouth; that if anything pleasing be heard, the muscles of the face are affected with laughter; and that if it be melancholy, it affects the glands of the eyes, and occasions weeping.