tranches de l expression des affections penibles ou concentrees. He
then adds that these muscles, from their attachment and position, are
fitted a resserrer, a concentrer les principaux traits de la _face_,
comme il convient dans toutes ces passions vraiment oppressives ou
profondes, dans ces affections dont le sentiment semble porter
l organisation a revenir sur elle-meme, a se contracter et a
_s amoindrir_, comme pour offrir moins de prise et de surface a des
impressions redoutables ou importunes. He who thinks that remarks of
this kind throw any light on the meaning or origin of the different
expressions, takes a very different view of the subject to what I do.
In the above passage there is but a slight, if any, advance in the
philosophy of the subject, beyond that reached by the painter Le Brun,
who, in 1667, in describing the expression of fright, says: Le sourcil
qui est abaisse d un cote et eleve de l autre, fait voir que la partie
elevee semble le vouloir joindre au cerveau pour le garantir du mal que
l ame apercoit, et le cote qui est abaisse et qui parait enfle, nous
fait trouver dans cet etat par les esprits qui viennent du cerveau en
abondance, comme polir couvrir l ame et la defendre du mal qu elle
craint; la bouche fort ouverte fait voir le saisissement du c ur, par
le sang qui se retire vers lui, ce qui l oblige, voulant respirer, a
faire un effort qui est cause que la bouche s ouvre extremement, et
qui, lorsqu il passe par les organes de la voix, forme un son qui n est
point articule; que si les muscles et les veines paraissent enfles, ce
n est que par les esprits que le cerveau envoie en ces parties-la. I
have thought the foregoing sentences worth quoting, as specimens of the
surprising nonsense which has been written on the subject.
The Physiology or Mechanism of Blushing, by Dr. Burgess, appeared in
1839, and to this work I shall frequently refer in my thirteenth
Chapter.
In 1862 Dr. Duchenne published two editions, in folio and octavo, of
his Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, in which he analyses by
means of electricity, and illustrates by magnificent photographs, the
movements of the facial muscles. He has generously permitted me to copy
as many of his photographs as I desired. His works have been spoken
lightly of, or quite passed over, by some of his countrymen. It is
possible that Dr. Duchenne may have exaggerated the importance of the
contraction of single muscles in giving expression; for, owing to the
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