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Show 1~ INTRODUCTION. " fug·aees, fussent ecrits passugereme~t sur .la face ~e " l'h'-omme. Ce langage de la physiOn?mie une rms " cre,e ,, I.l lui· a .s: uffi ' pour le rendre univ. ers1e ! £e t lm1 -' " muable, de donner a tout ~tre humain. a acu te " instinctive d'exprimer toujours ses sentiments par A '' la contraction des memes tnusc 1e s. " . Many writers consider the whole subjec~ of ~xpre~.s1on as inexplicable. Thus the illustrious physiolo.gist. Muller says,17 "The completely different expression , o.f the '' features in different passions shows that, according to " the kind of feeling excited, entirely different groups " of the fibres of the facial nerve are acted on. Of the " cause of this we are quite ignorant." No doubt as Ion()' as man and all other anitnals are viewed as independ0e nt creations, an effectual stop I• s .Pu t to our natural desire to investigate as far as possible the causes of Expression. By this doctrine, anythin? and everything can be equally well explained; and It has proved as pernicious with respect to Expression as to every other branch of natural history. With mankind some expressions, such as the bristling of the hair under the influence of extreme terror, or the uncovering of the teeth under that of furious rage, can hardly be understood, except on the belief that man once existed in a rnuch lower and animal-like condition. The community of certain expressions in distinct thongh allied species, as in the 1nove1nents of the sa1ne facial muscles during laughter by man and by various monkeys, is rendered somewhat more intelligible, if we Lelieve in their descent fron1 a cotnmon progenitor. He who adn1its on general grounds that the structure and lJabits of all anhnals have been gradually evolved, will look at (the whole subject of Expression in a new and interesting light. -------- 17 'Elements of Physiology,' English translation, vol. ii. p. 934. INTRODUCTION. 13 The study of Expression is difficult, owing to the movements being often extremely slight, and of a fleeting nature. A difference may be clearly perceived, and yet it may be impossible, at least I have found it so, to state in what the difference consists. When we witness any deep emotion, our sympathy is so strongly excited, that close observation is forgotten or rendered almost impossible ; of which fact I have had n1any curious proofs. Our imagination is another and still more serious source of error ; for if from the nature of the circu1nstances we expect to see any expression, 've readily imagine its pres~nce. N otwithstanding Dr. Duchenne's great experience, he for a long time fancied, as he states, that several muscl~s contracted under certain emotions, whereas he ultimately convinced himself that the movement was confined to a single muscle. In order to acquire as good a foundation as possible, and to ascertain, independently of common opinion, how far particular movements of the features and O'estures are really expressive of certain states of tho ~ind I have found the following means the mo 't servi~eable. In the first place, to observe infants; for they exhibit many emotions, as Sir. 0. Bell ~·emarkR, '' with extraordinary force ; " where as, In after hfe,. sonH• of our expressions "cease to have the pure and simple "source fron1 which they spring in infancy." 18 In the second place, it occurred to mo that tho insane ought to be studied, as they are liable to tho strongest passions, and give uncontrolled. vent to th~m. I had, myself, no opportunity of doing th1~, so I a1~phcd to Dr. Maudsley, and received from lum an Jn troduction to Dr. J. Urich ton Browne, who l1as charge 1s 'Anntomy of Expression,' i1l'tl edit. p. l9R. |