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Show 192 EXPRESSION OF GRIEF : CrrAP. VIT. II ro then a· I cannot doubt, we have th~ key to th proble'm why the cen t1.a 1 f:a sci·r o of the fronta. l n1uscle and the n1usc 1e s roun d t]1 e eyes con tract. 1.1 1 opp siti n to each other under the influence o: grJef; -whether their contraction be prolonged, as wit~ ~he melancholic insa.ne, or rno1nentary, from some ~rJfbng ause of distress. We have all of us, as. Infants, r peatedly contracted our orbicular, corrugator, ~nd pyramidal muscles, in o~der to protect our eyes whilst sr-reaming; our progenitors before us have d~ne the same during n1any generations; and tho?-gh :VIth advancing years we easily prevent, when feehng distresse~, the utterance of screams, we cannot from long habit always prevent a slight contraction of the.above-na~ed muscles; nor indeed do we observe theu contraction in ourselves, or attetnpt to stop it, if slight. But the pyramidal muscles seem to be less under the com~and of the will than the other related muscles; and If they L well developed, their contraction can be cheeked only by the antagonistic contraction of th.e central fascire of the frontal muscle. The result wh1ch necessarily follows, if these fascire contract energetically.' is the oblique drawing up of the eyebrows, the puckenng of their inner ends, and the formation of rectangular fnrrows on the middle of the forehead. As children and women cry much more freely than n1en, and as grown-up persons of both sexes rarely weep except from n1ental distress, we can understand why the grief-muscles are more frequently seen in action, as I believe to be the case, with children and wo1nen than with rnen; and with adults of both sexes from mental distress alone. In some of the cases before recorded, as in that of the poor Dhangar woman and of the Hindustani nuw, the action of the grief-muscles was quickly followed bv bitter woeiJinO'. In all cases of distress, whether ~ 0 CrtAr. V ff. DEPRESSED OORNERS OF THE MOUTH. 193 great or stnall, our brains tend through long habit to send an order to certain muscles to contract, as if we w~re still infants on the point of screaming out; but tlus order we, by the wondrous power of the will, and through habit, are able partially to counteract; although this is effected unconsciously, as far as the means of counteraction are concerned. On the clep1·ession of the corners of the mouth.-This action is . effected Ly the depressores angttli oris (see letter 1{ n1 figs. 1 and 2). ~rhe fibres of this 1nuscle diverge downwards, with the upper convergent ends attached round the angles of the mouth and to the lower lip a little way within the angle~.6 Some of the ~bres a.rpear to be antagonistic to the great zygomatic muscle, and others to the several muscles runniuoto .the outer part of the upper lip. ~rhe contraction of' thrs muscle draws downwards and outwards the corners ~f the Inouth? incl~1ding the outer part of the upper hp, and even 111 a shght degree the wings of the nostrils. vVhen the mouth is closed and this muscle acts the commiss~ne o~· line of junction of the two lips fo;ms a curved hne w1th the concavity downwards/ and the lips themselves are generally somewhat protruded, especially the Io,~er one. The mouth in this state i:; well represented In tl~e two photographs (Plate II., figs. 6 and 7) by Mr. l{eJ~ander. The upper boy (fig. 6) had just stopped crying, after receiving a slap on the face from another boy; and the right moment was seized for photographing him. The expression of low spirits, grief or dejection, due 6 Hcnlo, Hnndbuch der Anat. des Menschen, 1858, B. i. s. 148, fig~:~. G a.nd GD. , 7 Soo. tho account o~ tho action of this musclo by Dr. Duchenne, Meca.msmo de la Phys1onomie Humaine,' Album (1862), viii. p. 34. 0 |
