The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin (adult books to read TXT) 📕

[22] `Anatomy of Expression,’ 3rd edit. 1844, pp. 138, 121. CHAPTER VI.

SPECIAL EXPRESSIONS OF MAN: SUFFERING AND WEEPING.

The screaming and weeping Of infants—Forms of features—

Age at which weeping commences—The effects of habitual restraint on weeping—Sobbing—Cause of the contraction of the muscles round the eyes during screaming—Cause of the secretion of tears.

IN this and the following chapters the expressions exhibited by Man under various states of the mind will be described and explained, as far as lies in my power. My observations will be arranged according to the order which I have found the most convenient; and this will generally lead to opposite emotions and sensations succeeding each other.

Suffering of the body and mind: weeping.—I have already described in sufficient detail, in the third chapter, the signs of extreme pain, as shown by screams or groans, with the writhing of the whole body and the teeth clenched or ground together.

These signs are often accompanied or followed by profuse sweating, pallor, trembling, utter prostration, or faintness.

No suffering is greater than that from extreme fear or horror, but here a distinct emotion comes into play, and will be elsewhere considered. Prolonged suffering, especially of the mind, passes into low spirits, grief, dejection, and despair, and these states will be the subject of the following chapter.

Here I shall almost confine myself to weeping or crying, more especially in children.

Infants, when suffering even slight pain, moderate hunger, or discomfort, utter violent and prolonged screams.

Whilst thus screaming their eyes are firmly closed, so that the skin round them is wrinkled, and the forehead contracted into a frown.

The mouth is widely opened with the lips retracted in a peculiar manner, which causes it to assume a squarish form; the gums or teeth being more or less exposed. The breath is inhaled almost spasmodically. It is easy to observe infants whilst screaming; but I have found photographs made by the instantaneous process the best means for observation, as allowing more deliberation.

I have collected twelve, most of them made purposely for me; and they all exhibit the same general characteristics.

I have, therefore, had six of them[1] (Plate I.) reproduced by the heliotype process.

The firm closing of the eyelids and consequent compression of the eyeball,—and this is a most important element in various expressions,—serves to protect the eyes from becoming too much gorged with blood, as will presently be explained in detail.

With respect to the order in which the several muscles contract in firmly compressing the eyes, I am indebted to Dr. Langstaff, of Southampton, for some observations, which I have since repeated.

The best plan for observing the order is to make a person first raise his eyebrows, and this produces transverse wrinkles across the forehead; and then very gradually to contract all the muscles round the elves with as much force as possible.

The reader who is unacquainted with the anatomy of the face, ought to refer to p. 24, and look at the woodcuts 1 to 3.

The corrugators of the brow (corrugator supercilii) seem to be the first muscles to contract; and these draw the eyebrows downwards and inwards towards the base of the nose, causing vertical furrows, that is a frown, to appear between the eyebrows; at the same time they cause the disappearance of the transverse wrinkles across the forehead. The orbicular muscles contract almost simultaneously with the corrugators, and produce wrinkles all round the eyes; they appear, however, to be enabled to contract with greater force, as soon as the contraction of the corrugators has given them some support. Lastly, the pyramidal muscles of the nose contract; and these draw the eyebrows and the skin of the forehead still lower down, producing short transverse wrinkles across the base of the nose.[2] For the sake of brevity these muscles will generally be spoken of as the orbiculars, or as those surrounding the eyes.

[1] The best photographs in my collection are by Mr. Rejlander, of Victoria Street, London, and by Herr Kindermann, of Hamburg. Figs. 1, 3, 4, and 6 are by the former; and figs.

2 and 5, by the latter gentleman. Fig. 6 is given to show moderate crying in an older child.

When these muscles are strongly contracted, those running to the upper lip[3] likewise contract and raise the upper lip.

This might have been expected from the manner in which at least one of them, the malaris, is connected with the orbiculars.

Any one who will gradually contract the muscles round his eyes, will feel, as he increases the force, that his upper lip and the wings of his nose (which are partly acted on by one of the same muscles) are almost always a little drawn up.

If he keeps his mouth firmly shut whilst contracting the muscles round the eyes, and then suddenly relaxes his lips, he will feel that the pressure on his eyes immediately increases.

So again when a person on a bright, glaring day wishes to look at a distant object, but is compelled partially to close his eyelids, the upper lip may almost always be observed to be somewhat raised.

The mouths of some very short-sighted persons, who are forced habitually to reduce the aperture of their eyes, wear from this same reason a grinning expression.

[2] Henle (`Handbuch d. Syst. Anat. 1858, B. i. s. 139) agrees with Duchenne that this is the effect of the contraction of the pyramidalis nasi.

[3] These consist of the levator labii superioris alaeque nasi, the levator labii proprius, the malaris, and the zygomaticus minor, or little zygomatic. This latter muscle runs parallel to and above the great zygomatic, and is attached to the outer part of the upper lip.

It is represented in fig. 2 (I. p. 24), but not in figs.

1 and 3. Dr. Duchenne first showed (`Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine,’ Album, 1862, p. 39) the importance of the contraction of this muscle in the shape assumed by the features in crying.

Henle considers the above-named muscles (excepting the malaris) as subdivisions of the q_uadratus labii superioris_.

The raising of the upper lip draws upwards the flesh of the upper parts of the cheeks, and produces a strongly marked fold on each cheek,—the naso-labial fold,—which runs from near the wings of the nostrils to the corners of the mouth and below them.

This fold or furrow may be seen in all the photographs, and is very characteristic of the expression of a crying child; though a nearly similar fold is produced in the act of laughing or Smiling.[4]

[4] Although Dr. Duchenne has so carefully studied the contraction of the different muscles during the act of crying, and the furrows on the face thus produced, there seems to be something incomplete in his account; but what this is I cannot say.

He has given a figure (Album, fig. 48) in which one half of the face is made, by galvanizing the proper muscles, to smile; whilst the other half is similarly made to begin crying.

Almost all those (viz. nineteen out of twenty-one persons) to whom I showed the smiling half of the face instantly recognized the expression; but, with respect to the other half, only six persons out of twenty-one recognized it,—that is, if we accept such terms as “grief,” “misery,” “annoyance,”

as correct;—whereas, fifteen persons were ludicrously mistaken; some of them saying the face expressed “fun,” “satisfaction,”

“cunning,” “disgust,” &c. We may infer from this that there is something wrong in the expression. Some of the fifteen persons may, however, have been partly misled by not expecting to see an old man crying, and by tears not being secreted.

With respect to another figure by Dr. Duchenne (fig. 49), in which the muscles of half the face are galvanized in order to represent a man beginning to cry, with the eyebrow on the same side rendered oblique, which is characteristic of misery, the expression was recognized by a greater proportional number of persons.

Out of twenty-three persons, fourteen answered correctly, “sorrow,” “distress,” “grief,” “just going to cry,”

“endurance of pain,” &c. On the other hand, nine persons either could form no opinion or were entirely wrong, answering, “cunning leer,” “jocund,” “looking at an intense light,”

“looking at a distant object,” &c.

As the upper lip is much drawn up during the act of screaming, in the manner just explained, the depressor muscles of the angles of the mouth (see K in woodcuts 1 and 2) are strongly contracted in order to keep the mouth widely open, so that a full volume of sound may be poured forth.

The action of these opposed muscles, above and below, tends to give to the mouth an oblong, almost squarish outline, as may be seen in the accompanying photographs. An excellent observer,[5] in describing a baby crying whilst being fed, says, “it made its mouth like a square, and let the porridge run out at all four corners.”

I believe, but we shall return to this point in a future chapter, that the depressor muscles of the angles of the mouth are less under the separate control of the will than the adjoining muscles; so that if a young child is only doubtfully inclined to cry, this muscle is generally the first to contract, and is the last to cease contracting.

When older children commence crying, the muscles which run to the upper lip are often the first to contract; and this may perhaps be due to older children not having so strong a tendency to scream loudly, and consequently to keep their mouths widely open; so that the above-named depressor muscles are not brought into such strong action.

[5] Mrs. Gaskell, `Mary Barton,’ new edit. p. 84.

With one of my own infants, from his eighth day and for some time afterwards, I often observed that the first sign of a screaming-fit, when it could be observed coming on gradually, was a little frown, owing to the contraction of the corrugators of the brows; the capillaries of the naked head and face becoming at the same time reddened with blood. As soon as the screaming-fit actually began, all the muscles round the eyes were strongly contracted, and the mouth widely opened in the manlier above described; so that at this early period the features assumed the same form as at a more advanced age.

Dr. Piderit[6] lays great stress on the contraction of certain muscles which draw down the nose and narrow the nostrils, as eminently characteristic of a crying expression.

The depressores anguli oris, as we have just seen, are usually contracted at the same time, and they indirectly tend, according to Dr. Duchenne, to act in this same manner on the nose.

With children having bad colds a similar pinched appearance of the nose may be noticed, which is at least partly due, as remarked to me by Dr. Langstaff, to their constant snuffling, and the consequent pressure of the atmosphere on the two sides.

The purpose of this contraction of the nostrils by children having bad colds, or whilst crying, seems to be to cheek the downward flow of the mucus and tears, and to prevent these fluids spreading over the upper lip.

After a prolonged and severe screaming-fit, the scalp, face, and eyes are reddened, owing to the return of the blood from the head having been impeded by the violent expiratory efforts; but the redness of the stimulated eyes is chiefly due to the copious effusion of tears.

The