assume an oblique position in persons suffering from deep dejection
or anxiety; for instance, I have observed this movement in a mother
while speaking about her sick son; and it is sometimes excited by
quite trifling or momentary causes of real or pretended distress. The
eyebrows assume this position owing to the contraction of certain
muscles (namely, the orbiculars, corrugators, and pyramidals of the
nose, which together tend to lower and contract the eyebrows) being
partially checked by the more powerful action of the central fasciæ of
the frontal muscle. These latter fasciæ, by their contraction, raise
the inner ends alone of the eyebrows; and, as the corrugators at the
same time draw the eyebrows together, their inner ends become puckered
into a fold or lump. The eyebrows are at the same time somewhat
roughened, owing to the hairs being made to project. Dr. J. Crichton
Browne has also often noticed, in melancholic patients who keep their
eyebrows persistently oblique, “a peculiar acute arching of the upper
eyelid.” The acute arching of the eyelids depends, I believe, on the
inner end alone of the eyebrows being raised; for, when the whole
eyebrow is elevated and arched, the upper eyelid follows in a slight
degree the same movement.
But the most conspicuous result of the opposed contraction of the
above-named muscles is exhibited by the peculiar furrows formed
on the forehead. These muscles, when thus in conjoint yet opposed
action, may be called, for the sake of brevity, the grief-muscles.
When a person elevates his eyebrows by the contraction of the whole
frontal muscle, transverse wrinkles extend across the whole breadth
of the forehead; but, in the present case, the middle fasciæ alone
are contracted; consequently, transverse furrows are formed across
the middle part alone of the forehead. The skin over the exterior
parts of both eyebrows is at the same time drawn downward and smoothed
by the contraction of the outer portions of the orbicular muscles.
The eyebrows are likewise brought together through the simultaneous
contraction of the corrugators; and this latter action generates
vertical furrows, separating the exterior and lowered part of the skin
of the forehead from the central and raised part. The union of these
vertical furrows with the central and transverse furrows produces a
mark on the forehead which has been compared to a horseshoe; but the
furrows more strictly form three sides of a quadrangle. They are often
conspicuous on the foreheads of adult, or nearly adult, persons, when
their eyebrows are made oblique; but with young children, owing to
their skin not easily wrinkling, they are rarely seen, or mere traces
of them can be detected.
VOLUNTARY POWER OVER THE GRIEF-MUSCLES.
[Page 183.]
Few persons, without some practice, can voluntarily act on their
grief-muscles; but, after repeated trials, a considerable number
succeed, while others never can. The degree of obliquity in the
eyebrows, whether assumed voluntarily or unconsciously, differs much
in different persons. With some who apparently have unusually strong
pyramidal muscles, the contraction of the central fasciæ of the frontal
muscle, although it may be energetic, as shown by the quadrangular
furrows on the forehead, does not raise the inner ends of the eyebrows,
but only prevents their being so much lowered as they otherwise would
have been. As far as I have been able to observe, the grief-muscles are
brought into action much more frequently by children and women than by
men. They are rarely acted on, at least with grown-up persons, from
bodily pain, but almost exclusively from mental distress. Two persons,
who, after some practice, succeeded in acting on their grief-muscles,
found by looking at a mirror that, when they made their eyebrows
oblique, they unintentionally at the same time depressed the corners
of their mouths; and this is often the case when the expression is
naturally assumed.
The power to bring the grief-muscles freely into play appears to be
hereditary, like almost every other human faculty. A lady belonging to
a family famous for having produced an extraordinary number of great
actors and actresses, and who can herself give this expression “with
singular precision,” told Dr. Crichton Browne that all her family
had possessed the power in a remarkable degree. The same hereditary
tendency is said to have extended, as I likewise hear from Dr.
Browne, to the last descendant of the family, which gave rise to Sir
Walter Scott’s novel of “Red Gauntlet”; but the hero is described as
contracting his forehead into a horseshoe mark from any strong emotion.
I have also seen a young woman whose forehead seemed almost habitually
thus contracted, independently of any emotion being at the time felt.
The grief-muscles are not very frequently brought into play; and, as
the action is often momentary, it easily escapes observation. Although
the expression, when observed, is universally and instantly recognized
as that of grief or anxiety, yet not one person out of a thousand who
has never studied the subject is able to say precisely what change
passes over the sufferer’s face. Hence probably it is that this
expression is not even alluded to, as far as I have noticed, in any
work of fiction, with the exception of “Red Gauntlet” and of one other
novel; and the authoress of the latter, as I am informed, belongs to
the famous family of actors just alluded to; so that her attention may
have been specially called to the subject.
“DOWN IN THE MOUTH.”
[Page 194.]
To say that a person “is down in the mouth” is synonymous with saying
that he is out of spirits. The depression of the corners may often be
seen, as already stated on the authority of Dr. Crichton Browne and
Mr. Nicol, with the melancholic insane, and was well exhibited in some
photographs, sent to me by the former gentleman, of patients with a
strong tendency to suicide. It has been observed with men belonging to
various races, namely, with Hindoos, the dark hill-tribes of India,
Malays, and, as the Rev. Mr. Hagenauer informs me, with the aborigines
of Australia.
When infants scream they firmly contract the muscles round their eyes,
and this draws up the upper lip; and, as they have to keep their mouths
widely open, the depressor muscles running to the corners are likewise
brought into strong action. This generally, but not invariably, causes
a slight angular bend in the lower lip on both sides, near the corners
of the mouth.
* * * * *
[Page 195.]
It is remarkable how small a depression of the corners of the mouth
gives to the countenance an expression of low spirits or dejection,
so that an extremely slight contraction of these muscles would be
sufficient to betray this state of mind.
I may here mention a trifling observation, as it will serve to sum
up our present subject. An old lady with a comfortable but absorbed
expression sat nearly opposite to me in a railway-carriage. While I was
looking at her I saw that her _depressores anguli oris_ became very
slightly yet decidedly contracted; but, as her countenance remained as
placid as ever, I reflected how meaningless was this contraction, and
how easily one might be deceived. The thought had hardly occurred to
me when I saw that her eyes suddenly became suffused with tears almost
to overflowing, and her whole countenance fell. There could now be
no doubt that some painful recollection, perhaps that of a long-lost
child, was passing through her mind. As soon as her sensorium was thus
affected, certain nerve-cells from long habit instantly transmitted an
order to all the respiratory muscles, and to those round the mouth, to
prepare for a fit of crying. But the order was countermanded by the
will, or rather by a later acquired habit, and all the muscles were
obedient, excepting in a slight degree the _depressores anguli oris_.
The mouth was not even opened; the respiration was not hurried; and no
muscle was affected except those which draw down the corners of the
mouth.
LAUGHTER.
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 200.]
Many curious discussions have been written on the causes of laughter
with grown-up persons. The subject is extremely complex. Something
incongruous or unaccountable, exciting surprise and some sense of
superiority in the laughter, who must be in a happy frame of mind,
seems to be the commonest cause. The circumstances must not be of a
momentous nature; no poor man would laugh or smile on suddenly hearing
that a large fortune had been bequeathed to him.
* * * * *
[Page 201.]
The imagination is sometimes said to be tickled, by a ludicrous idea;
and this so-called tickling of the mind is curiously analogous with
that of the body. Every one knows how immoderately children laugh
and how their whole bodies are convulsed when they are tickled. The
anthropoid apes, as we have seen, likewise utter a reiterated sound,
corresponding with our laughter, when they are tickled, especially
under the armpits. I touched with a bit of paper the sole of the foot
of one of my infants, when only seven days old, and it was suddenly
jerked away and the toes curled about, as in an older child. Such
movements, as well as laughter from being tickled, are manifestly
reflex actions; and this is likewise shown by the minute unstriped
muscles, which serve to erect the separate hairs on the body,
contracting near a tickled surface. Yet laughter from a ludicrous idea,
though involuntary, can not be called a strictly reflex action. In this
case, and in that of laughter from being tickled, the mind must be in
a pleasurable condition; a young child, if tickled by a strange man,
would scream from fear. The touch must be light, and an idea or event,
to be ludicrous, must not be of grave import. The parts of the body
which are most easily tickled are those which are not commonly touched,
such as the armpits or between the toes, or parts such as the soles
of the feet, which are habitually touched by a broad surface; but the
surface on which we sit offers a marked exception to this rule.
* * * * *
[Page 202.]
The sound of laughter is produced by a deep inspiration followed by
short, interrupted, spasmodic contractions of the chest, and especially
of the diaphragm. Hence we hear of “laughter holding both his sides.”
From the shaking of the body, the head nods to and fro. The lower jaw
often quivers up and down, as is likewise the case with some species of
baboons, when they are much pleased.
During laughter the mouth is opened more or less widely, with the
corners drawn much backward, as well as a little upward; and the upper
lip is somewhat raised. The drawing back of the corners is best seen in
moderate laughter, and especially in a broad smile--the latter epithet
showing how the mouth is widened.
* * * * *
[Page 208.]
Although we can hardly account for the shape of the mouth during
laughter, which leads to wrinkles being formed beneath the eyes, nor
for the peculiar reiterated sound of laughter, nor for the quivering of
the jaws, nevertheless we may infer that all these effects are due to
some common cause; for they are all characteristic and expressive of a
pleased state of mind in various kinds of monkeys.
* * * * *
It is scarcely possible to point out any difference between the
tear-stained face of a person after a paroxysm of excessive laughter
and after a bitter crying-fit. It is probably due to the close
similarity of the spasmodic movements caused by these widely different
emotions that hysteric patients alternately cry and laugh with
violence, and that young children sometimes pass suddenly from the one
to the other state. Mr. Swinhoe informs me that he has often seen the
Chinese, when suffering from deep grief, burst out into hysterical fits
of laughter.
I was anxious to know whether tears are freely shed during excessive
laughter by most of the races of men, and I hear from my correspondents
that this is the case. One instance was observed with the Hindoos, and
they themselves said that it often occurred. So it is with the Chinese.
The women of a wild tribe of Malays in the Malacca Peninsula sometimes
shed tears when they laugh heartily, though this seldom occurs. With
the Dyaks of Borneo it must frequently be the case, at least with
the women, for I hear from the Rajah C. Brooke that it is a common
expression with them to say, “We nearly made tears from laughter.”
* * * * *
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 133.]
Young orangs, when tickled, grin and make a chuckling sound; and Mr.
Martin says that their eyes grow brighter. As soon as their laughter
ceases, an expression may be detected passing over their faces,
which, as Mr. Wallace remarked to me, may be called a smile. I have
also noticed something of the same kind with the chimpanzee. Dr.
Duchenne--and I can not quote a better authority--informs me that he
kept a very tame monkey in his house for a year; and, when he gave it
during meal-times some choice delicacy, he observed that the corners
of its mouth were slightly raised; thus an expression of satisfaction,
partaking of the nature of an incipient smile, and resembling that
often seen on the face of man, could be plainly perceived in this
animal.
EXPRESSION OF THE DEVOUT EMOTIONS.
[Page 220.]
With some sects, both past and present, religion and love have been
strangely combined; and it has even been maintained, lamentable as
the fact may be, that the holy kiss of love differs but little from
that which a man bestows on a woman, or a woman on a man. Devotion is
chiefly expressed by the face being directed toward the heavens, with
the eyeballs upturned. Sir C. Bell remarks that, at the approach of
sleep, or of a fainting-fit, or of death, the pupils are drawn upward
and inward; and he believes that “when we are rapt in devotional
feelings, and outward impressions are unheeded, the eyes are raised by
an action neither taught nor acquired”; and that this is due to the
same cause as in the above cases. That the eyes are upturned during
sleep is, as I hear from Professor Donders, certain. With babies, while
sucking their mother’s breast, this movement of the eyeballs often
gives to them an absurd appearance of ecstatic delight; and here it may
be clearly perceived that a struggle is going on against the position
naturally assumed during sleep. But Sir C. Bell’s explanation of the
fact, which rests on the assumption that certain muscles are more under
the control of the will than others, is, as I hear from Professor
Donders, incorrect. As the eyes are often turned up in prayer, without
the mind being so much absorbed in thought as to approach to the
unconsciousness of sleep, the movement is probably a conventional
one--the result of the common belief that Heaven, the source of Divine
power to which we pray, is seated above us.
A humble kneeling posture, with the hands upturned and palms joined,
appears to us, from long habit, a gesture so appropriate to devotion,
that it might be thought to be innate; but I have not met with any
evidence to this effect with the various extra-European races of
mankind. During the classical period of Roman history it does not
appear, as I hear from an excellent classic, that the hands were thus
joined during prayer. Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood has apparently given
the true explanation, though this implies that the attitude is one
of slavish subjection. “When the suppliant kneels and holds up his
hands with the palms joined, he represents a captive who proves the
completeness of his submission by offering up his hands to be bound
by the victor. It is the pictorial representation of the Latin _dare
manus_, to signify submission.” Hence it is not probable that either
the uplifting of the eyes or the joining of the open hands, under the
influence of devotional feelings, is an innate or a truly expressive
action; and this could hardly have been expected, for it is very
doubtful whether feelings such as we should now rank as devotional
affected the hearts of men while they remained during past ages in an
uncivilized condition.
FROWNING.
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 225.]
We may now inquire how it is that a frown should express the perception
of something difficult or disagreeable, either in thought or action.
In the same way as naturalists find it advisable to trace the
embryological development of an organ in order fully to understand
its structure, so with the movements of expression it is advisable to
follow as nearly as possible the same plan. The earliest and almost
sole expression seen during the first days of infancy, and then
often exhibited, is that displayed during the act of screaming; and
screaming is excited, both at first and for some time afterward, by
every distressing or displeasing sensation and emotion--by hunger,
pain, anger, jealousy, fear, etc. At such times the muscles round the
eyes are strongly contracted; and this, as I believe, explains to a
large extent the act of frowning during the remainder of our lives. I
repeatedly observed my own infants, from under the age of one week to
that of two or three months, and found that, when a screaming-fit came
on gradually, the first sign was the contraction of the corrugators,
which produced a slight frown, quickly followed by the contraction of
the other muscles round the eyes.
* * * * *
[Page 226.]
Screaming or weeping begins to be voluntarily restrained at an early
period of life, whereas frowning is hardly ever restrained at any age.
It is perhaps worth notice that, with children much given to weeping,
anything which perplexes their minds, and which would cause most other
children merely to frown, readily makes them weep. So with certain
classes of the insane, any effort of mind, however slight, which with
an habitual frowner would cause a slight frown, leads to their weeping
in an unrestrained manner. It is not more surprising that the habit of
contracting the brows at the first perception of something distressing,
although gained during infancy, should be retained during the rest of
our lives, than that many other associated habits acquired at an early
age should be permanently retained both by man and the lower animals.
For instance, full-grown cats, when feeling warm and comfortable,
often retain the habit of alternately protruding their fore-feet with
extended toes, which habit they practiced for a definite purpose while
sucking their mothers.
POUTING.
[Page 232.]
With young children sulkiness is shown by pouting, or, as it is
sometimes called, “making a snout.” When the corners of the mouth
are much depressed, the lower lip is a little everted and protruded;
and this is likewise called a pout. But the pouting here referred
to consists of the protrusion of both lips into a tubular form,
sometimes to such an extent as to project as far as the end of the
nose, if this be short. Pouting is generally accompanied by frowning,
and sometimes by the utterance of a booing or whooing noise. This
expression is remarkable, as almost the sole one, as far as I know,
which is exhibited much more plainly during childhood, at least with
Europeans, than during maturity. There is, however, some tendency to
the protrusion of the lips with the adults of all races under the
influence of great rage. Some children pout when they are shy, and they
can then hardly be called sulky.
* * * * *
[Page 234.]
Young orangs and chimpanzees protrude their lips to an extraordinary
degree, when they are discontented, somewhat angry, or sulky; also
when they are surprised, a little frightened, and even when slightly
pleased. Their mouths are protruded apparently for the sake of making
the various noises proper to these several states of mind; and its
shape, as I observed with the chimpanzee, differed slightly when the
cry of pleasure and that of anger were uttered. As soon as these
animals become enraged, the shape of the mouth wholly changes, and the
teeth are exposed. The adult orang when wounded is said to emit “a
singular cry, consisting at first of high notes, which at length deepen
into a low roar. While giving out the high notes he thrusts out his
lips into a funnel shape, but in uttering the low notes he holds his
mouth wide open.” With the gorilla, the lower lip is said to be capable
of great elongation. If, then, our semi-human progenitors protruded
their lips when sulky or a little angered, in the same manner as do
the existing anthropoid apes, it is not an anomalous, though a curious
fact, that our children should exhibit, when similarly affected, a
trace of the same expression, together with some tendency to utter a
noise. For it is not at all unusual for animals to retain, more or less
perfectly, during early youth, and subsequently to lose, characters
which were aboriginally possessed by their adult progenitors, and which
are still retained by distinct species, their near relations.
DECISION AT THE MOUTH.
[Page 236.]
No determined man probably ever had an habitually gaping mouth. Hence,
also, a small and weak lower jaw, which seems to indicate that the
mouth is not habitually and firmly closed, is commonly thought to be
characteristic of feebleness of character. A prolonged effort of any
kind, whether of body or mind, implies previous determination; and if
it can be shown that the mouth is generally closed with firmness before
and during a great and continued exertion of the muscular system, then,
through the principle of association, the mouth would almost certainly
be closed as soon as any determined resolution was taken.
ANGER.
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 243.]
The lips are sometimes protruded during rage in a manner the meaning
of which I do not understand, unless it depends on our descent from
some ape-like animal. Instances have been observed, not only with
Europeans, but with the Australians and Hindoos. The lips, however,
are much more commonly retracted, the grinning or clinched teeth being
thus exposed. This has been noticed by almost every one who has written
on expression. The appearance is as if the teeth were uncovered, ready
for seizing or tearing an enemy, though there may be no intention
of acting in this manner. Mr. Dyson Lacy has seen this grinning
expression with the Australians, when quarreling, and so has Gaika
with the Caffres of South Africa. Dickens, in speaking of an atrocious
murderer who had just been caught, and was surrounded by a furious mob,
describes “the people as jumping up one behind another, snarling with
their teeth, and making at him like wild beasts.” Every one who has
had much to do with young children must have seen how naturally they
take to biting, when in a passion. It seems as instinctive in them as
in young crocodiles, who snap their little jaws as soon as they emerge
from the egg.
SNEERING.
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 253.]
The expression here considered, whether that of a playful sneer or
ferocious snarl, is one of the most curious which occurs in man.
It reveals his animal descent; for no one, even if rolling on the
ground in a deadly grapple with an enemy, and attempting to bite him,
would try to use his canine teeth more than his other teeth. We may
readily believe from our affinity to the anthropomorphous apes that
our male semi-human progenitors possessed great canine teeth, and men
are now occasionally born having them of unusually large size, with
interspaces in the opposite jaw for their reception. We may further
suspect, notwithstanding that we have no support from analogy, that our
semi-human progenitors uncovered their canine teeth when prepared for
battle, as we still do when feeling ferocious, or when merely sneering
at or defying some one, without any intention of making a real attack
with our teeth.
DISGUST.
[Expression of
the Emotions,
page 258.]
Extreme disgust is expressed by movements round the mouth identical
with those preparatory to the act of vomiting. The mouth is opened
widely, with the upper lip strongly retracted, which wrinkles the sides
of the nose, and with the lower lip protruded and everted as much as
possible. This latter movement requires the contraction of the muscles
which draw downward the corners of the mouth.