often accompanied by vibratory movements of their jaws or lips, with
the corners of the mouth drawn backwards and upwards, by the wrinkling
of the cheeks, and even by the brightening of the eyes.
We may likewise infer that fear was expressed from an extremely remote
period, in almost the same manner as it now is by man; namely, by
trembling, the erection of the hair, cold perspiration, pallor, widely
opened eyes, the relaxation of most of the muscles, and by the whole
body cowering downwards or held motionless.
Suffering, if great, will from the first have caused screams or groans
to be uttered, the body to be contorted, and the teeth to be ground
together. But our progenitors will not have exhibited those highly
expressive movements of the features which accompany screaming and
crying until their circulatory and respiratory organs, and the muscles
surrounding the eyes, had acquired their present structure. The
shedding of tears appears to have originated through reflex action from
the spasmodic contraction of the eyelids, together perhaps with the
eyeballs becoming gorged with blood during the act of screaming.
Therefore weeping probably came on rather late in the line of our
descent; and this conclusion agrees with the fact that our nearest
allies, the anthropomorphous apes, do not weep. But we must here
exercise some caution, for as certain monkeys, which are not closely
related to man, weep, this habit might have been developed long ago in
a sub-branch of the group from which man is derived. Our early
progenitors, when suffering from grief or anxiety, would not have made
their eyebrows oblique, or have drawn down the corners of their mouth,
until they had acquired the habit of endeavouring to restrain their
screams. The expression, therefore, of grief and anxiety is eminently
human.
Rage will have been expressed at a very early period by threatening or
frantic gestures, by the reddening of the skin, and by glaring eyes,
but not by frowning. For the habit of frowning seems to have been
acquired chiefly from the corrugators being the first muscles to
contract round the eyes, whenever during infancy pain, anger, or
distress is felt, and there consequently is a near approach to
screaming; and partly from a frown serving as a shade in difficult and
intent vision. It seems probable that this shading action would not
have become habitual until man had assumed a completely upright
239