108 MAN [CHAP. VII 



Letter 473 platysma contracts during extreme terror, as before an 

 operation ; and, secondly, whether it contracts during a 

 shivering fit. Several persons are observing for me, but I 

 receive most discordant results. 



I beg you to present my most respectful and kind 

 compliments to your honoured father [Sir G. B. Airy]. 



Letter 474 To Francis Galton. 



Mr. Galton had written on Nov. 7th, 1872, offering to send to 

 various parts of Africa Darwin's printed list of questions intended to 

 guide observers on expression. Mr. Galton goes on : "You do not, I 

 think, mention in Expression what I thought was universal among 

 blubbering children (when not trying to see if harm or help was coming 

 out of the corner of one eye) of pressing the knuckles against the eyeballs, 

 thereby reinforcing the orbicularis." 



Down, Nov. 8th [1872]. 



Many thanks for your note and offer to send out the 

 queries ; but my career is so nearly closed that I do not 

 think it worth while. What little more I can do shall be 

 chiefly new work. I ought to have thought of crying 

 children rubbing their eyes with their knuckles, but I did 

 not think of it, and cannot explain it. As far as my memory 

 serves, they do not do so whilst roaring, in which case 

 compression would be of use. I think it is at the close of 

 the crying fit, as if they wished to stop their eyes crying, or 

 possibly to relieve the irritation from the salt tears. I wish I 

 knew more about the knuckles and crying. 



What a tremendous stir-up your excellent article on 

 prayer l has made in England and America ! 



r To F. C. Donders. 



Letter 475 



We have no means of knowing whether the observations suggested 

 in the following letter were made if not, the suggestion is worthy of 

 record. 



Down, Dec. 2ist, 1872. 



You will have received some little time ago my book on 

 Expression, in writing which I was so deeply indebted to your 



1 The article entitled " Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer" 

 appeared in the Fortnightly Review, 1872. In Mr. Francis Gallon's 

 book on Inquiries into Human Faculty and its Development^ London, 

 1883, a section (pp. 277-94) is devoted to a discussion on the " Objective 

 Efficacy of Prayer." 



