though with advancing years we easily prevent, when feeling distressed,
the utterance of screams, we cannot from long habit always prevent a
slight contraction of the above-named muscles; nor indeed do we observe
their contraction in ourselves, or attempt to stop it, if slight. But
the pyramidal muscles seem to be less under the command of the will
than the other related muscles; and if they be well developed, their
contraction can be checked only by the antagonistic contraction of the
central fasciae of the frontal muscle. The result which necessarily
follows, if these fasciae contract energetically, is the oblique
drawing up of the eyebrows, the puckering of their inner ends, and the
formation of rectangular furrows on the middle of the forehead. As
children and women cry much more freely than men, and as grown-up
persons of both sexes rarely weep except from mental distress, we can
understand why the grief-muscles are more frequently seen in action, as
I believe to be the case, with children and women than with men; 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 man, the action of the grief-muscles was quickly followed by
bitter weeping. In all cases of distress, whether great or small, our
brains tend through long habit to send an order to certain muscles to
contract, as if we were still infants on the point of screaming out;
but this 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 depression of the corners of the mouth_. This action is
effected by the _depressores anguili oris_ (see letter K in figs. 1 and
2). The fibres of this muscle diverge downwards, with the upper
convergent ends attached round the angles of the mouth, and to the
lower lip a little way within the angles.[706] Some of the fibres
appear to be antagonistic to the great zygomatic muscle, and others to
the several muscles running to the outer part of the upper lip. The
contraction of this muscle draws downwards and outwards the corners of
the mouth, including the outer part of the upper lip, and even in a
slight degree the wings of the nostrils. When the mouth is closed and
this muscle acts, the commissure or line of junction of the two lips
forms a curved line with the concavity downwards,[707] and the lips
themselves are generally somewhat protruded, especially the lower one.
The mouth in this state is well represented in the two photographs
(Plate II., figs. 6 and 7) by Mr. Rejlander. The upper boy (fig. 6) had
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