"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals" followed "The
Descent of Man" in 1872. The motive which suggested it was the desire to
explain the complexities of expression on evolution principles. But the
study of emotional expression had evidently engaged Darwin's attention
at least from the time when the Fuegians and the Gauchos had vividly
roused his imaginative faculties; and his direct observations commenced
as early as 1838; when he was already inclined to believe in evolution,
and were continued at intervals ever after. The third edition of Sir
Charles Bell's "Anatomy of Expression," published in 1844, while greatly
admired by him, was unsatisfactory in being throughout based on the
conviction that species came into existence in their present condition;
and notwithstanding that Bain and Herbert Spencer had made considerable
advances in a treatment of the subject based on physiology, an
exhaustive book was wanted, which should throw on Expression the new and
interesting light of Darwinism.
What was Darwin's method? Observation, cleverly devised appeal to
nature; observation over a wide field as to the varied races of man
still existing, utilising the aid of travellers and residents in many
lands; observation of domestic animals in familiar and in untried
circumstances; observation of infants, especially his own, from a very
early age; observation of the insane, who are liable to the strongest
passions, and give them uncontrolled vent. It was in 1867 that Darwin
circulated his group of questions designed to ascertain the mode of
expressing every emotion, and their physical concomitants in every
possible race. Sculpture, paintings, and engravings, afforded little
evidence, because beauty is their main object, and "strongly contracted
facial muscles destroy beauty." Information was specially sought as to
natives who had had little communication with Europeans, and in whom
imitation might not have destroyed ancestral and original expression.
The result was to develop three principles which appeared, in
combination, to account for most of the expressions and gestures
involuntarily used by man and animals. The first was that of serviceable
associated habits: certain complex actions being somehow serviceable in
particular states of mind, to gratify and relieve certain sensations,
desires, &c., whenever the same state of feeling is repeated, there is a
tendency to the same movements or actions, though they may not then be
of the least use. The second principle, that of antithesis, is the
converse of the last; when an opposite state of mind is induced, there
is an involuntary tendency to directly opposite movements, though of no
use. The third principle, that of the direct action of the nervous
system, is independent of the will and of habit; nerve force being
generated in excess by strong emotions.
In discussing all these principles we discover how every thought and
every circumstance of the great naturalist seem to have been utilised in
his life work. "I have noticed that persons in describing a horrid
sight, often shut their eyes momentarily and firmly, or shake their
heads as if not to see, or to drive away, something disagreeable; and I
have caught myself, when thinking in the dark of a horrid spectacle,
closing my eyes firmly." "I noticed a young lady earnestly trying to
recollect a painter's name, and she first looked to one corner of the
ceiling, and then to the opposite corner, arching the one eyebrow on
that side, although of course there was nothing to be seen there." "Many
years ago I laid a small wager with a dozen young men that they would
not sneeze if they took snuff, although they all declared that they
invariably did so; accordingly they all took a pinch, but from wishing
much to succeed, not one sneezed, though their eyes watered, and all,
without exception, had to pay me the wager." "I put my face close to the
thick glass-plate in front of a puff-adder in the Zoological Gardens,
with the firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck at
me; but as soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing,
and I jumped a yard or two backwards with astonishing rapidity. My will
and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had
never been experienced." "I observed that though my infants started at
sudden sounds, when under a fortnight old, they certainly did not always
wink their eyes, and I believe never did so. The start of an older
infant apparently represents a vague catching hold of something to
prevent falling. I shook a pasteboard box close before the eyes of one
of my infants, when 114 days old, and it did not in the least wink; but
when I put a few comfits into the box, holding it in the same position
as before, and rattled them, the child blinked its eyes violently every
time, and started a little." The behaviour of dogs and horses under many
circumstances was watched. Cats and monkeys were most carefully
scrutinised. At all moments Darwin seized upon and recorded the passing
emotion and its associated movements. "I remember once seeing a boy who
had just shot his first snipe on the wing, and his hands trembled to
such a degree from delight, that he could not for some time reload his
gun;" an instance of an emotional movement being disadvantageous.
Some of Darwin's descriptions of emotional outbursts are among the best
portions of his writing; as when he speaks of a mother whose infant has
been intentionally injured, "how she starts up with threatening aspect,
how her eyes sparkle and her face reddens, how her bosom heaves,
nostrils dilate, and heart beats." In describing a mourner when
quiescent, he says: "The sufferer sits motionless, or gently rocks to
and fro; the circulation becomes languid; respiration is almost
forgotten, and deep sighs are drawn. All this reacts on the brain, and
prostration soon follows with collapsed muscles and dulled eyes."
One of the most striking features of this book is the evidence it
affords of Darwin's acuteness and persistence in observation during his
travels, and of the excellence of his memory. "I remember that my mules
and dogs, brought from a lower and warmer country, after spending a
night on the bleak Cordillera, had the hair all over their bodies as
erect as under the greatest terror." He noted that Jemmy Button, the
Fuegian, blushed when he was quizzed about the care which he took in
polishing his shoes, and in otherwise adorning himself; and this fact
long after is fitted into the theory of blushing. Guanacoes in South
America, when not intending to bite, but merely to spit their offensive
saliva from a distance at an intruder, yet retract their ears as a sign
of their anger; and Darwin found the hides of several which he shot in
Patagonia, deeply scored by teeth marks, in consequence of their battles
with each other. A party of natives in Tierra del Fuego endeavoured to
explain that their friend, the captain of a sealing vessel, was out of
spirits, by pulling down their cheeks with both hands, so as to make
their faces as long as possible; and the fact is treasured till it comes
in to illustrate the lengthening of features under depression. As if he
foreknew that he should want the fact forty years later, he inquired of
Jemmy Button whether kissing was practised by his people, and learnt
that it was unknown to them. "I remember," he says, "being struck whilst
travelling in parts of South America, which were dangerous from the
presence of Indians, how incessantly--yet as it appeared,
unconsciously--the half-wild Gauchos closely scanned the whole horizon."
"In Tierra del Fuego, a native touched with his finger some cold
preserved meat which I was eating at our bivouac, and plainly showed
utter disgust at its softness; whilst I felt utter disgust at my food
being touched by a naked savage, though his hands did not appear dirty."
And this illustrates the primary meaning of disgust--anything offensive
to the taste.
In later years his own children, and his domestic pets, were incessantly
watched, and suitable experiments were devised to bring out the real
nature of their expressions. The period at which tears are formed and
crying begins, the shape of the mouth in crying, the contraction of the
muscles in shouting, the effects of steady gazing at objects, the
various stages of smiling, the effects of shyness, shame, and fear, are
all set before us, as thus observed. For instance, "I asked one of my
boys to shout as loudly as he possibly could, and as soon as he began he
firmly contracted his orbicular muscles (surrounding the eyes). I
observed this repeatedly, and on asking him why he had every time so
firmly closed his eyes, I found that he was quite unaware of the fact:
he had acted instinctively or unconsciously." Some of his early
observations were afterwards published by Darwin in _Mind_, vol. ii.,
under the title of "A Biographical Sketch of an Infant."
Here is a carefully-worded and very suggestive experiment on animals:
"Many years ago, in the Zoological Gardens, I placed a looking-glass on
the floor before two young orangs, who, as far as it was known, had
never before seen one. At first they gazed at their own images with the
most steady surprise, and often changed their point of view. They then
approached close, and protruded their lips towards the image, as if to
kiss it, in exactly the same manner as they had previously done towards
each other when first placed, a few days before, in the same room. They
next made all sorts of grimaces, and put themselves in various
attitudes before the mirror; they pressed and rubbed the surface; they
placed their hands at different distances behind it; looked behind it;
and finally seemed almost frightened, started a little, became cross,
and refused to look any longer." So monkeys were tested with a dressed
doll, a live turtle, and stuffed snakes, &c.
The mode and purpose of erection of the hair, feathers, and dermal
appendages of animals were the subject of much careful inquiry.
Chimpanzees, monkeys, baboons, and many other creatures, were tested in
the Zoological Gardens. A stuffed snake taken into the monkey-house
caused several species to bristle. When Darwin showed the same to a
peccary, the hair rose in a wonderful manner along its back. A cassowary
erected its feathers at sight of an ant-eater.
Every unexpected occurrence was pressed into service. Witness the
following anecdote: "One day my horse was much frightened at a drilling
machine, covered by a tarpaulin and lying on an open field. He raised
his head so high that his neck became almost perpendicular; and this he
did from habit, for the machine lay on a slope below, and could not have
been seen with more distinctness through the raising of the head; nor if
any sound had proceeded from it could the sound have been more
distinctly heard. His eyes and ears were directed intently forwards; and
I could feel through the saddle the palpitations of his heart. With red,
dilated nostrils, he snorted violently, and whirling round, would have
dashed off at full speed had I not prevented him."
We see, too, in this book the results of Darwin's extensive reading.
The novelists are laid considerably under contribution, their power of
describing expressive signs of emotion being particularly appreciated.
Dickens, Walter Scott, Mrs. Oliphant, and Mrs. Gaskell are among the
novelists quoted; while the author of Job, Homer, Virgil, Seneca,
Shakespeare, Lessing, Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many other deceased
writers, illustrate the subject. The living authorities--scientific men,
travellers, doctors--referred to for facts are exceedingly numerous,
including Sir James Paget, Professor Huxley, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Sir J.
Crichton Browne, Sir Samuel Baker, Sir Joseph Lister, Professors Cope
and Asa Gray, and many others.
One of the most interesting chapters in the book is that dealing with
blushing. It is shown to depend on self-attention, excited almost
exclusively by the opinion of others. "Every one feels blame more
acutely than praise. Now, whenever we know, or suppose, that others are
depreciating our personal appearance, our attention is strongly drawn
towards ourselves, more especially to our faces." This excites the nerve
centres receiving sensory nerve for the face, and in turn relaxes the
blood capillaries, and fills them with blood. "We can understand why the
young are much more affected than the old, and women more than men, and
why the opposite sexes especially excite each others' blushes. It
becomes obvious why personal remarks should be particularly liable to
cause blushing, and why the most powerful of all the causes is shyness;
for shyness relates to the presence and opinion of others, and the shy
are always more or less self-conscious."
One great result made clear by Darwin is that the muscles of expression
have not been created or developed for the sake of expression only, and
that every true or inherited movement of expression had some natural or
independent origin. All the chief expressions are proved to be
essentially the same throughout the world, which is an additional
argument for man being descended from one stock. We cannot refrain from
admiring the tone of the pages which close the book, describing as they
do the probable expressions of our early ancestors, their utility, the
value of differences of physiognomy, and the desirability or otherwise
of repressing signs of emotion. The subject, says the author, "deserves
still further attention, especially from any able physiologist;" and so
simply ends a volume of surpassing human interest, a text-book for
novelists and students of human nature, a landmark in man's progress in
obedience to the behest "Know thyself."
To fully measure the merit of one so far elevated above ordinary men is
almost impossible; rather is it desirable to recognise the undeniable
greatness of a great man, and learn all that is possible from him. An
undoubted authority in mental science, however, has given a judgment
on Darwin's services to that science, which it is right to quote:
"To ourselves it almost seems one of the most wonderful of the many
wonderful aspects of Mr. Darwin's varied work that by the sheer force
of some exalted kind of common-sense, unassisted by any special
acquaintance with psychological method, he should have been able to
strike, as it were, straight down upon some of the most important
truths which have ever been brought to light in the region of mental
science."[12] These truths are specified as the influence of natural
selection in the formation of instinct, in the "Origin of Species;" the
evolution of mind and of morals, in the "Descent of Man," considered by
the late Professor Clifford as containing the simplest and clearest and
most profound philosophy that was ever written on the subject; and the
evolution of expression in the book described in this chapter. Thus,
says Mr. Romanes, in respect both of instincts and intelligence, the
science of comparative psychology may be said to owe its foundation to
Darwin.
FOOTNOTES:
[12: G. J. Romanes, in "Charles Darwin," memorial notices
reprinted from _Nature_.]