INTRODUCTION. 3 



C. Bell did not attempt to follow out his views as far as 

 thev might have been carried. He does not try to ex- 

 plain 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 sourcilier (comigator sujjercilii), remarks with 

 truth : — " Cette action cles sourciliers est un des symp- 



6 ' L'Art de connaitre les Homines,' &c, par G. Lavater. 

 The earliest edition of this work, referred to in the preface 

 to the edition of 1820 in ten volumes, as containing- the 

 observations of M. Moreau, is said to have been published 

 in 1807; and I have no doubt that this is correct, because 

 the ' Notice sur Lavater ' at the commencement of volume 

 i. is dated April 13, 1806. In some bibliographical works, 

 however, the date of 1S05-1S09 is given, but it seems im- 

 possible that 1805 can be correct. Dr. Duchenne remarks 

 (' Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine,' 8vo edit. 1862, 

 p. 5, and ' Archives Generates de Medecine,' Jan. et Fev. 

 1862) that M. Moreau " a compose pour son ouvrage un 

 article important," &c, in the year 1805; and I find in vol- 

 ume i. of the edition of 1820 passages bearing the dates of 

 December 12, 1S05, and another January 5, 1S06, besides 

 that of April 13, 1806, above referred to. In consequence 

 of some of these passages having thus been composed in 

 1805, Dr. Duchenne assigns to M. Moreau the priority over 

 Sir C. Bell, whose work, as we have seen, was published 

 in 1806. This is a very unusual manner of determining 

 the priority of scientific works; but such questions are 

 of extremely little importance in comparison with their 

 relative merits. The passages above quoted from M. 

 Moreau and from Le Brun are taken in this and all other 

 cases from the edition of 1820 of Lavater, torn. iv. p. 228, 

 and torn. ix. p. 279. 



