exhibited in one of the figures on the right-hand; and I could add a
few other instances.
Dr. Crichton Browne, at my request, closely attended to this expression
in the numerous insane patients under his care in the West Riding
Asylum; and he is familiar with Duchenne s photographs of the action of
the grief-muscles. He informs me that they may constantly be seen in
energetic action in cases of melancholia, and especially of
hypochondria; and that the persistent lines or furrows, due to their
habitual contraction, are characteristic of the physiognomy of the
insane belonging to these two classes. Dr. Browne carefully observed
for me during a considerable period three cases of hypochondria, in
which the grief-muscles were persistently contracted. In one of these,
a widow, aged 51, fancied that she had lost all her viscera, and that
her whole body was empty. She wore an expression of great distress, and
beat her semi-closed hands rhythmically together for hours. The
grief-muscles were permanently contracted, and the upper eyelids
arched. This condition lasted for months; she then recovered, and her
countenance resumed its natural expression. A second case presented
nearly the same peculiarities, with the addition that the comers of the
mouth were depressed.
Mr. Patrick Nicol has also kindly observed for me several cases in the
Sussex Lunatic Asylum, and has communicated to me full details with
respect to three of them; but they need not here be given. From his
observations on melancholic patients, Mr. Nicol concludes that the
inner ends of the eyebrows are almost always more or less raised, with
the wrinkles on the forehead more or less plainly marked. In the case
of one young woman, these wrinkles were observed to be in constant
slight play or movement. In some cases the comers of the mouth are
depressed, but often only in a slight degree. Some amount of difference
in the expression of the several melancholic patients could almost
always be observed. The eyelids generally droop; and the skin near
their outer comers and beneath them is wrinkled. The naso-labial fold,
which runs from the wings of the nostrils to the comers of the mouth,
and which is so conspicuous in blubbering children, is often plainly
marked in these patients.
Although with the insane the grief-muscles often act persistently; yet
in ordinary cases they are sometimes brought unconsciously into
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