5 go THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ancients had investigated the influence of pain as expressed in the fig- 

 ure and the muscles. Further on he quotes from the words of Paulo 

 Somazzo's work, " DelP^Arte della Pittura," published in 1531, a pas- 

 sage describing the influence of the passions upon the muscles of the 

 face, and still more minutely the different postures and contortions of 

 the body. John Bulner, in his work entitled " Significative Muscles 

 of the Affections of the Mind," published in 1649, expressed the opin- 

 ion that every motion of the mind is indicated by a corresponding 

 motion of the muscles, saying : " When we assent, affirme, yield, grant, 

 vote, confirme, confesse, admit, allow, or approve of a thing, etc., we 

 are wont to nod or bend our head forward, the naturall reason of 

 which motion in these, seems an approving, which is made by the 

 Imagination, seeing, or hearing, somewhat done or said which accord- 

 eth very well, and this power remaineth in the Braine or forehead part 

 of the head where in the cell and Seat of the Imaginations lieth. 

 "When any of these things give it contentment, suddenly it moveth 

 the same, and after it all the muscles of the body." 



There is in the subject before us a field for observation and de- 

 scription in which the artist and the physician may work together, 

 observing and analyzing, with as much exactness as may be, the mode 

 by which tbe varying conditions of the brain and mind are indicated 

 to our eye, and may therefore be described by words, and by draw- 

 ing or sculpture. We must study man in all aspects of the case, and 

 when we see in the face, limbs, or body indications of his brain or 

 mental condition, we should analyze and describe first, the position 

 of features and parts as we see them, then the muscles which produce 

 those positions or movements, knowing that the muscular condition 

 which has produced the movements or positions is the result of the 

 state of the corresponding nerve-centers. It has been said that a man's 

 face is an index of his mind, and this is true ; for all the varying 

 changes of expression in the face (except those of color) are due to 

 changes in the facial muscles, and these solely depend upon changes 

 in nerve-cells. The knowledge that we already possess of the nerve- 

 centers is from observation of the condition of the muscles. In a given 

 case, by comparing the state of the muscles during life as they may 

 be affected with paralysis or spasm with the brain-lesion found after 

 death, and by collecting and comparing many cases, it has been found 

 that destructive or irritative lesions of certain parts of the brain cause 

 paralysis or spasm of a certain set of muscles corresponding. It is 

 probable, then, that by carefully continuing these methods of exam- 

 ination that is, by describing with accuracy all states which are in- 

 dicated by conditions of the muscles we may add still more to our 

 knowledge of the functions of different parts of the brain, and gain a 

 further insight into the pathology of that large group of nervous 

 centers termed functional. 



