Sir Charles Bell, so illustrious for his discoveries in physiology,
published in 1806 the first edition, and in the third edition of his
Anatomy and Philosophy of Expression. [4] He may with justice be said,
not only to have laid the foundations of the subject as a branch of
science, but to have built up a noble structure. His work is in every
way deeply interesting; it includes graphic descriptions of the various
emotions, and is admirably illustrated. It is generally admitted that
his service consists chiefly in having shown the intimate relation
which exists between the movements of expression and those of
respiration. One of the most important points, small as it may at first
appear, is that the muscles round the eyes are involuntarily contracted
during violent expiratory efforts, in order to protect these delicate
organs from the pressure of the blood. This fact, which has been fully
investigated for me with the greatest kindness by Professors Donders of
Utrecht, throws, as we shall hereafter see, a flood of light on several
of the most important expressions of the human countenance. The merits
of Sir C. Bell s work have been undervalued or quite ignored by several
foreign writers, but have been fully admitted by some, for instance by
M. Lemoine,[5] who with great justice says: Le livre de Ch. Bell
devrait etre medite par quiconque essaye de faire parler le visage de
l homme, par les philosophes aussi bien que par les artistes, car, sous
une apparence plus legere et sous le pretexte de l esthetique, c est un
des plus beaux monuments de la science des rapports du physique et du
moral.
From reasons which will presently be assigned, Sir C. Bell did not
attempt to follow out his views as far as they might have been carried.
He does not try to explain why different muscles are brought into
action under different emotions; why, for instance, the inner ends of
the eyebrows are raised, and the corners of the mouth depressed, by a
person suffering from grief or anxiety.
In 1807 M. Moreau edited an edition of Lavater on Physiognomy,[6] in
which he incorporated several of his own essays, containing excellent
descriptions of the movements of the facial muscles, together with many
valuable remarks. He throws, however, very little light on the
philosophy of the subject. For instance, M. Moreau, in speaking of the
act of frowning, that is, of the contraction of the muscle called by
French writers the _soucilier_ (_corrigator supercilii_), remarks with
truth: Cette action des sourciliers est un des symptomes les plus
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