The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin (adult books to read TXT) 📕

and feeble, and is often interrupted by deep sighs. As Gratiolet remarks, whenever our attention is long concentrated on any subject, we forget to breathe, and then relieve ourselves by a deep inspiration; but the sighs of a sorrowful person, owing to his slow respiration and languid circulation, are eminently characteristic.[1] As the grief of a person in this state occasionally recurs and increases into a paroxysm, spasms affect the respiratory muscles, and he feels as if something, the so-called globus hystericus, was rising in his throat.

These spasmodic movements are clearly allied to the sobbing of children, and are remnants of those severer spasms which occur when a person is said to choke from excessive grief.[2]

 

[1] The above descriptive remarks are taken in part from my own observations, but chiefly from Gratiolet (`De la Physionomie,’ pp. 53, 337; on Sighing, 232), who has well treated this whole subject. See, also, Huschke. `Mimices et Physiognomices, Fragmentum Physiologicitim,’ 1821, p. 21. On the dulness of the eyes, Dr. Piderit, `Mimik und Physiognomik,’ 1867, s. 65.

 

[2] On the action of grief on the organs of respiration, Obliquity of the eyebrows.—Two points alone in the above description require further elucidation, and these are very curious ones; namely, the raising of the inner ends of the eyebrows, and the drawing down of the corners of the mouth.

With respect to the eyebrows, they may occasionally be seen to assume an oblique position in persons suffering from deep dejection or anxiety; for instance, I have observed this movement in a mother whilst 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 fascim of the frontal muscle. These latter fasciae 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.

This fold is a highly characteristic point in the appearance of the eyebrows when rendered oblique, as may be seen in figs.

2 and 5, Plate II. 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.”

A trace of this may be observed by comparing the right and left eyelids of the young man in the photograph (fig. 2, Plate II.); for he was not able to act equally on both eyebrows. This is also shown by the unequal furrows on the two sides of his forehead.

The acute arching of the eyelids

 

see more especially Sir C. Bell, `Anatomy of Expression,’ 3rd edit.

1844, p. 151. 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 fasciae 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 downwards and smooth, by the contraction of the outer portions of the orbicular muscles.

The eyebrows are likewise brought together through the simultaneous contraction of the corrugators;[3] 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 (see figs.

2 and 3) 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.

 

These peculiar furrows are best represented in fig. 3, Plate II., on the forehead of a young lady who has the power in an unusual degree of voluntarily acting on the requisite muscles.

As she was absorbed in the attempt, whilst being photographed, her expression was not at all one of grief; I have therefore given the forehead alone. Fig. 1 on the same plate, copied from Dr. Duchenne’s work 4 represents, on a reduced scale, the face, in its natural state, of a young man who was a good actor.

In fig. 2 he is shown simulating grief, but the [3] In the foregoing remarks on the manner in which the eyebrows are made oblique, I have followed what seems to be the universal opinion of all the anatomists, whose works I have consulted on the action of the above-named muscles, or with whom I have conversed.

Hence throughout this work I shall take a similar view of the action of the corrugator supercilii, orbicularis, pyramidalis nasi, and frontalis muscles. Dr. Duchenne, however, believes, and every conclusion at which he arrives deserves serious consideration, that it is the corrugator, called by him the sourcilier, which raises the inner corner of the eyebrows and is antagonistic to the upper and inner part of the orbicular muscle, as well as to the pyramidalis nasi

(see Mecanisme de la Phys. Humaine, 1862, folio, art.

v., text and figures 19 to 29: octavo edit. 1862, p. 43 text).

He admits, however, that the corrugator draws together the eyebrows, causing vertical furrows above the base of the nose, or a frown.

He further believes that towards the outer two-thirds of the eyebrow the corrugator acts in conjunction with the upper orbicular muscle; both here standing in antagonism to the frontal muscle.

I am unable to understand, judging from Henle’s drawings (woodcut, fig.

3), how the corrugator can act in the manner described by Duchenue. See, also, oil this subject, Prof. Donders’ remarks in the `Archives of Medicine,’ 1870, vol. v. p. 34. Mr. J. Wood, who is so well known for his careful study of the muscles of the human frame, informs me that he believes the account which I have given of the action of the corrugator to be correct.

But this is not a point of any importance with respect to the expression which is caused by the obliquity of the eyebrows, nor of much importance to the theory of its origin.

 

`I am greatly indebted to Dr. Duchenne for permission to have these two photographs (figs. 1 and 2) reproduced by the heliotype process from his work in folio. Many of the foregoing remarks on the furrowing of the skin, when the eyebrows are rendered oblique, are taken from his excellent discussion on this subject.

two eyebrows, as before remarked, are not equally acted on.

That the expression is true, may be inferred from the fact that out of fifteen persons, to whom the original photograph was shown, without any clue to what was intended being given them, fourteen immediately answered, “despairing sorrow,”

“suffering endurance,” “melancholy,” and so forth. The history of fig.

5 is rather curious: I saw the photograph in a shop-window, and took it to Mr. Rejlander for the sake of finding out by whom it had been made; remarking to him how pathetic the expression was.

He answered, “I made it, and it was likely to be pathetic, for the boy in a few minutes burst out crying.” He then showed me a photograph of the same boy in a placid state, which I have had (fig. 4) reproduced. In fig. 6, a trace of obliquity in the eyebrows may be detected; but this figure, as well as fig.

7, is given to show the depression of the corners of the mouth, to which subject I shall presently refer.

 

Few persons, without some practice, can voluntarily act on their grief-muscles; but after repeated trials a considerable number succeed, whilst 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 fasciae 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.

 

The ancient Greek sculptors were familiar with the expression, as shown in the statues of the Laocoon and Arretino; but, as Duchenne remarks, they carried the transverse furrows across the whole breadth of the forehead, and thus committed a great anatomical mistake: this is likewise the case in some modern statues.

It is, however, more probable that these wonderfully accurate observers intentionally sacrificed truth for the sake of beauty, than that they made a mistake; for rectangular furrows on the forehead would not have had a grand appearance on the marble.

The expression, in its fully developed condition, is, as far as I can discover, not often represented in pictures by the