ANATOMICAL AND PHYSIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
To any inquiry respecting the beauty of woman, the replies are, in
general, various, inconsistent, or contradictory. The assertion might,
therefore, appear to be true, that, even under the same climate, beauty is
not always the same.
Our vague perceptions, however, and our vague expressions respecting
beauty, will be found to be, in a great measure, owing to the inaccuracy
of our mode of examining it, and, in some measure, to the imperfect
nomenclature which we possess for describing it.
Beauty, and even true taste, respecting it, are always the same; but, in
the first place, we observe beauty partially and imperfectly; and in the
second place, our actual preferences are dependant on our particular
wants, and will be found to differ only because these wants differ in
every individual, and even in the same individual at different periods of
life.
The laws regulating beauty in woman, and taste respecting it in man, have
not been attempted to be explained, except in the worthless work alluded
to in the advertisement. Yet nothing perhaps is more universally
interesting.
As, in this view, the kinds of beauty demand the first and chief
attention, the following illustrations are necessary:--
We observe a woman possessing one species of beauty:--Her face is
generally oblong; her neck is rather long and tapering: her shoulders,
without being angular, are sufficiently broad and definite; her bosom is
of moderate dimensions; her waist, remarkable for fine proportion,
resembles in some respects an inverted cone; her haunches are moderately
expanded; her thighs, proportional; her arms, as well as her limbs, are
rather long and tapering; her hands and feet are moderately small; her
complexion is often rather dark; and her hair is frequently abundant,
dark, and strong.--The whole figure is precise, striking, and brilliant.
Yet, has she few or none of the qualities of the succeeding species.
We observe, next, another species of beauty:--Her face is generally round;
her eyes are generally of the softest azure; her neck is often rather
short; her shoulders are softly rounded, and owe any breadth they may
possess rather to the expanded chest, than to the size of the shoulders
themselves; her bosom, in its luxuriance, seems laterally to protrude on
the space occupied by the arms; her waist, though sufficiently marked, is,
as it were, encroached on by the enbonpoint of all the contiguous parts;
her haunches are greatly expanded; her thighs are large in proportion; but
her limbs and arms, tapering and becoming delicate, terminate in feet and
hands which, compared with the ample trunk, are peculiarly small; her
complexion has the rose and lily so exquisitely blended, that we are
surprised it should defy the usual operation of the elements; and she
boasts a luxuriant profusion of soft and fine flaxen or auburn hair.--The
whole figure is soft and voluptuous in the extreme. Yet has she not the
almost measured proportions and the brilliant air of the preceding
species; nor has she the qualities of the succeeding one.
We observe, then, a beauty of a third species:--Her face is generally
oval; her high and pale forehead announces the intellectuality of her
character; her intensely expressive eye is full of sensibility; in her
lower features, modesty and dignity are often united; she has not the
expanded bosom, the general embonpoint, or the beautiful complexion, of
the second species; and she boasts easy and graceful motion, rather than
the elegant proportion of the first.--The whole figure is characterized by
intellectuality and grace.
Such are the three species of beauty of which all the rest are varieties.
Now, as it is in general one only of these species which characterizes any
one woman, and as each of these species is suited to the wants of, and is
consequently agreeable to, a different individual, it is obvious why the
common vague reports of the beauty of any woman are always so various,
inconsistent, or contradictory.
In the more accurate study of this subject, it is indispensable that the
reader should understand the scientific principles on which the preceding
brief analysis of female beauty, as reducible to three species, is
founded.
To attain this knowledge, and to acquire facility in the art of
distinguishing and judging of beauty in woman, a little general knowledge
of anatomy is absolutely essential. The writer begs, therefore, attention
to the following sketch. It may not at first seem interesting to the
general reader; but it is the sole basis of a scientific knowledge of
female beauty; the study of it during one hour is sufficient to apprehend
it in all its bearings; and it will obviate every future difficulty.
In viewing the human organs in a general manner, a class of these organs
at once obtrudes itself upon our notice, from its consisting of an
apparatus of levers, from its performing motion from place to place or
locomotion, and from these motions being of the most obvious kind.--A
little more observation presents to us another class, which is
distinguished from the preceding by its consisting of cylindrical tubes,
by its transmitting and transmuting liquids, performing vascular action or
nutrition, and by its motions being barely apparent.--Farther
investigation discovers a third, which differs essentially from both
these, in its consisting of nervous particles, in its transmitting
impressions from external objects, performing nervous action or thought,
and in that action being altogether invisible.
Thus, each of these classes of organs is distinguished from another by the
structure of its parts, by the purposes which it serves, and by the
greater or less obviousness of its motions.
The first consists of levers; the second, of cylindrical tubes; and the
third, of nervous particles. The first performs motion from place to place
or locomotion; the second transmits and transmutes liquids, performing
vascular action or nutrition; and the third transmits impressions from
external objects, performing nervous action or thought. The motion of the
first is extremely obvious; that of the second is barely apparent; and
that of the third is altogether invisible.
Not one of them can be confounded with another: for, considering their
purposes only, it is evident that that which performs locomotion, neither
transmits liquids nor sensations; that which transmits liquids, neither
performs locomotion nor is the means of sensibility; and that which is the
means of sensibility, neither performs locomotion nor transmits liquids.
Now, the organs employed in locomotion are the bones, ligaments, and
muscles; those employed in transmitting liquids or in nutrition, are the
absorbent, circulating, and secreting vessels; and those employed about
sensations or in thought, are the organs of sense, cerebrum, and cerebel,
with the nerves which connect them.
The first class of organs may, therefore, be termed locomotive, or (from
their very obvious action) mechanical; the second, vascular or nutritive,
or (as even vegetables, from their possessing vessels, have life) they may
be termed vital; and the third may be named nervous or thinking, or (as
mind results from them) mental.
The human body, then, consists of organs of three kinds. By the first
kind, locomotive or mechanical action is effected; by the second,
nutritive or vital action is maintained; and by the third, thinking or
mental action is permitted.
Anatomy is, therefore, divided into three parts, namely, that which
considers the mechanical or locomotive organs; that which considers the
nutritive or vital organs; and that which considers the thinking or mental
organs.
Under the mechanical or locomotive organs are classed, first, the bones or
organs of support; second, the ligaments or organs of articulation; and
third, the muscles or organs of motion.
Under the nutritive or vital organs are classed, first, the absorbent
vessels or organs of absorption; second, the bloodvessels, which derive
their contents from the absorbed lymph, or organs of circulation; and
third, the secreting vessels, which separate various matters from the
blood, or organs of secretion.[23]
Under the thinking or mental organs are classed, first, the organs of
sense, where impressions take place; second, the cerebrum or organ of
thought, properly so called, where these excite ideas, emotions, and
passions; and third, the cerebel or organ of volition, where acts of the
will result from the last.[24]
We may now more particularly notice the functions of these organs, which
are the subject of physiology.
In the locomotive functions, the bones at once give support, and form
levers for motion; the ligaments form articulations, and afford the points
of support; and the muscles are the moving powers. To the first, are owing
all the symmetry and elegance of human form; to the second, its beautiful
flexibility; and to the third, all the brilliance and grace of motion
which fancy can inspire, or skill can execute.
In the nutritive functions, the food, having passed into the mouth, is,
after mastication, aided by mixture with the saliva, thrown back, by the
tongue and contiguous parts, into the cavity behind, called fauces and
pharynx; this contracting, presses it into the oesophagus or gullet;
this also contracting, propels it into the stomach, which, after its due
digestion aided by the gastric juice, similarly contracting, transmits
whatever portion of it, now called chyme, is sufficiently comminuted to
pass through its lower opening, the pylorus, into the intestines; these,
at the commencement of which it receives the bile and pancreatic juice,
similarly pressing it on all sides, urge forward its most solid part to
the anus; while its liquid portion partly escapes from the pressure into
the mouths of the absorbents. The absorbents arising by minute openings
from all the internal surfaces, and continuing a similar contractile
motion, transmit it, now called chyle, by all their gradually-enlarging
branches, and through their general trunk, the thoracic duct, where it is
blended with the lymph brought from other parts, into the great veins
contiguous to the heart, where it is mixed with the venous or returning
and dark-colored blood, and whence it flows into the anterior side of that
organ. The anterior side of the heart, forcibly repeating this
contraction, propels it, commixed with the venous blood, into the lungs,
which perform the office of respiration, and in some measure of
sanguification; there, giving off carbonaceous matter, and assuming a
vermilion hue and new vivifying properties, it flows back as arterial
blood, into the posterior side of the heart. The posterior side of the
heart, still similarly contracting, discharges it into the arteries;
these, maintaining a like contraction, carry it over all the system; and a
great portion of it, impregnated with carbon, and of a dark color, returns
through the veins in order to undergo the same course. Much, however, of
its gelatinous and fibrous parts is retained in the cells of the
parenchyma, or cellular, vascular, and nervous substance forming the basis
of the whole fabric, and constitutes nutrition, properly so called; while
other portions of it become entangled in the peculiarly-formed labyrinths
of the glands, and form secretion and excretion--the products of the
former contributing to the exercise of other functions, and those of the
latter being rejected. As digestion precedes the first, so generation
follows the last of these functions, and not only continues the same
species of action, but propagates it widely to new existences in the
manner just described.
In the thinking functions, the organs of sense receive external
impressions, which excite in them sensations; the cerebrum, having these
transmitted to it, performs the more complicated functions of mental
operation, whence result ideas, emotions, and passions; and the cerebel,
being similarly influenced, performs the function of volition, or causes
the acts of the will.
It is not unusual to consider the body as being divided into the head, the
trunk, and the extremities; but, in consequence of the hitherto universal
neglect of the natural arrangement of the organs and functions into
locomotive, nutritive, and thinking, the beauty and interest which may be
attached to this division, have equally escaped the notice of anatomists.
It is a curious fact, and strongly confirmative of the preceding
arrangements, that one of these parts, the extremities, consists almost
entirely of locomotive organs, namely, of bones, ligaments, and muscles;
that another, the trunk, consists of all the greater nutritive organs,
namely, absorbents, bloodvessels, and glands; and that the third, the
head, contains all the thinking organs, namely, the organs of sense,
cerebrum, and cerebel.[25]
It is a fact not less curious, nor less confirmative of the preceding
arrangements, that, of these parts, those which consist chiefly of
locomotive or mechanical organs--organs which, as to mere structure, and
considered apart from the influence of the nervous system over them, are
common to us with the lowest class of beings, namely, minerals[26]--are
placed in the lowest situation, namely, the extremities; that which
consists chiefly of nutritive or vital organs--organs common to us with a
higher class of beings, namely, vegetables[27]--is placed in a higher
situation, namely, the trunk; and that which consists chiefly of thinking
or mental organs--organs peculiar to the highest class of beings, namely,
animals[28]--is placed in the highest situation, namely, the head.
It is not less remarkable, that this analogy is supported even in its
minutest details; for, to choose the nutritive organs contained in the
trunk as an illustration, it is a fact, that those of absorption and
secretion, which are most common to us with plants, a lower class of
beings, have a lower situation--in the cavity of the abdomen; while those
of circulation, which are very imperfect in plants,[29] and more peculiar
to animals, a higher class of beings, hold a higher situation--in the
cavity of the thorax.
It is, moreover, worthy of remark, and still illustrative of the preceding
arrangements, that, in each of these three situations, the bones differ
both in, position and in form. In the extremities, they are situated
internally to the soft parts, and are generally of cylindrical form; in
the trunk, they begin to assume a more external situation and a flatter
form, because they protect nutritive and more important parts, which they
do not, however, altogether cover; and, in the head, they obtain the most
external situation and the flattest form, especially in its highest part,
because they protect thinking and most important organs, which, in some
parts, they completely invest.
The loss of such general views is the consequence of arbitrary
methods.[30]
We may now apply these anatomical and physiological views to the art of
distinguishing and judging of beauty in woman.
It is evidently the locomotive or mechanical system which is highly
developed in the beauty whose figure is precise, striking, and brilliant.
It is evidently the nutritive or vital system which is highly developed in
the beauty whose figure is soft and voluptuous.
It is not less evidently the thinking or mental system which is highly
developed in the beauty whose figure is characterized by intellectuality
and grace.
Thus can anatomical principles alone at once illustrate and establish the
accuracy of the three species of beauty which I have analytically
described.