than they do the depressors of the corners of the mouth. Two excellent
observers who had no theory on the subject, one of them a surgeon,
carefully watched for me some older children and women as with some
opposed struggling they very gradually approached the point of bursting
out into tears; and both observers felt sure that the depressors began
to act before any of the other muscles. Now as the depressors have been
repeatedly brought into strong action during infancy in many
generations, nerve-force will tend to flow, on the principle of long
associated habit, to these muscles as well as to various other facial
muscles, whenever in after life even a slight feeling of distress is
experienced. But as the depressors are somewhat less under the control
of the will than most of the other muscles, we might expect that they
would often slightly contract, whilst the others remained passive. It
is remarkable how small a depression of the corners of the mouth gives
to the countenance an expression of low spirits or dejection, so that
an extremely slight contraction of these muscles would be sufficient to
betray this state of mind.
I may here mention a trifling observation, as it will serve to sum up
our present subject. An old lady with a comfortable but absorbed
expression sat nearly opposite to me in a railway carriage. Whilst I
was looking at her, I saw that her _depressores anguli oris_ became
very slightly, yet decidedly, contracted; but as her countenance
remained as placid as ever, I reflected how meaningless was this
contraction, and how easily one might be deceived. The thought had
hardly occurred to me when I saw that her eyes suddenly became suffused
with tears almost to overflowing, and her whole countenance fell. There
could now be no doubt that some painful recollection, perhaps that of a
long-lost child, was passing through her mind. As soon as her sensorium
was thus affected, certain nerve-cells from long habit instantly
transmitted an order to all the respiratory muscles, and to those round
the mouth, to prepare for a fit of crying. But the order was
countermanded by the will, or rather by a later acquired habit, and all
the muscles were obedient, excepting in a slight degree the
_depressores anguli oris_. The mouth was not even opened; the
respiration was not hurried; and no muscle was affected except those
which draw down the corners of the mouth.
As soon as the mouth of this lady began, involuntarily and
unconsciously on her part, to assume the proper form for a crying-fit,
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