| OCR Text |
Show 178 EXPRESSION OF GRIEF: CHAP, VTT, CHAPTER VII. IJOW SPIRITS, ANXIETY, Gn.IE'F, DE.TRCTION, DESPAIR. Ge nera l e.u('{e' c t of cor r1'ef on the system- Obliq. uit. y of the eyebro. ws under suffering- On the cause of the obhqu1ty of the eyeb10ws -On the depression of the corners of the mouth. AFTER the mind has suffered from an acute paroxysm of grief, and the cause still continues, we fall into a E»tate of low spirits; or we may be utterly cast dow~ and dejected. Prolonged bodily pain, if not amounting to an agony, generally leads to the s~me s~ate of mind. If we expect to suffer, we are anxious ; If we have no hope of relief, we despair. . Persons suffering from excessive grief often seek rehef by violent and almost frantic mov~ments, ~s d~scribed in a former chapter ; but when their suffenng IS son:cwhat mitigated, yet prolonged, they no longer w1sh for action but remain motionless and passive, or may occasionaliy rock themselves to and fro. The circ~lntion becomes languid ; the face pale ; the muscles flaccid ; the eyelids droop ; the head hangs on the contractcrl chest; the lips, cheeks, and lower jaw all sink down· wards from their own weight. Hence all the features are lengthened; and the face of a person who hears bad news is said to fall. A party of natives in Tierra del Fuego endeavoured to explain to us that tbei~· ~riend, the captain of a sealing vessel, was out of spll'Its, by pulling down their cheeks with both bands, so as to make their faces as long as possible. Mr. Bunnet informs me that the Australian aborigines when ont of CHAP. VJf. OBLIQUE EYEBHO,VS. 17D spirit~ have a chop-fallen appearance. After prolonged suffenng the eyes become dull and lack · d . expression, an are often slightly suffused with tears Th b · e eye-rows not rarely are rendered oblique which I·s 1 t ? the n· · I· nner e~ds being raised. This 'p roduces pe(c nu - h~rly-formed wrinkles on the forehead, which are verydifferent from those of a simple fi·own; though in son; cases a frown alone may be present. The cornel's of tho mouth. are drawn. downwar~s, which is so universally recognised as a sign of be1ng out of spirits, that it is almost proverbial. . The breathing becomes slow and feeble, and is often Interrupted by deep sighs. .As Gratiolet remarks wh~never our attention is long concentrated on an; subJect, we. for~·et ~o breathe, and then relieve ourselve by a de~p 1nspu:at1on; but the sighs of a sorrowful pers? n, ow1ng t? his slow respiration and languid circulation, are e1n1nently cbaracteristic.1 As the grief of . h' a ~1erson In t Is state occasionally recurs and increases J nto a paroxysm, spasms affect the respiratory muscle,", and l~e feels a~ . if something, the so-called globu.~ hysterwus, was rising in his throat. These spasmodic lnovements are clearly allied to the sobbino- of children an d are remnants of those severer spasmsb which occur' when ~ p~rson is said to choke from excessive grief.2 Obhqu'tty. of, the e'ljebrows.-Two points alone in th~ above descnptwn require further elucidation, and thes are very cunous ones ; namely, the Taising of the innrr 1 The . above des cn·p t ' 1 ve rom arks are taken in part fl'Om my own obsm·vatwns, but chiefly f1·om G1·atiolet (' Do Ja Physionomie ' pp r..>3 ·B 37 •· on S I· gh m· o0', 232 ), who has well treated this whole 'subio'c t. ·S o• • also Huschke 'M' · t p . . J ' 1 . ' , ' . umccs c hyswgnomiCes, Fragment urn Pl1y, io-ogteum, .1821, I'· 21. On the dulne::~s of the eyes, Dr. Pidcrit '1\limik und Physwgnomik,' 18G7, s. 65. ' 2 On the action of O'rt'cf' tl f . . . . o on 1e organs o respuatwn s e more C'Spr- Cially Su • Bell, 'Anatomy of Expression,' 81·d edit. 1' 4-1, p. J !i I. N 2 |
