154 EXPRESSION OP SUFFERING: Chap. VI. 



causes, of which fact Sir J. Lubbock 8 has collected in- 

 stances. A New Zealand chief " cried like a child be- 

 cause the sailors spoilt his favourite cloak by powdering 

 it with flour." I saw in Tierra del Fuego a native who 

 had lately lost a brother, and who alternately cried with 

 hysterical violence, and laughed heartily at anything 

 which amused him. With the civilized nations of Eu- 

 rope there is also much difference in the frequency of 

 weeping. Englishmen rarely cry, except under the pres- 

 sure of the acutest grief; whereas in some parts of the 

 Continent the men shed tears much more readily and 

 freely. 



The insane notoriously give way to all their emo- 

 tions with little or -no restraint; and I am informed by 

 Dr. J. Crichton Browne, that nothing is more charac- 

 teristic of simple melancholia, even in the male sex, than 

 a tendenc}' to weep on the slightest occasions, or from no 

 cause. They also weep disproportionately on the occur- 

 rence of any real cause of grief. The length of time dur- 

 ing which some patients weep is astonishing, as well as 

 the amount of tears which they shed. One melancholic 

 girl wept for a whole day, and afterwards confessed to 

 Dr. Browne, that it was because she remembered that 

 she had once shaved off her eyebrows to promote their 

 growth. Many patients in the asylum sit for a long time 

 rocking themselves backwards and forwards; " and if 

 spoken to, they stop their movements, purse up their 

 eyes, depress the corners of the mouth, and burst out 

 crying." In some of these cases, the being spoken to or 

 kindly greeted appears to suggest some fanciful and sor- 

 rowful notion; but in other cases an effort of anv kind 

 excites weeping, independently of any sorrowful idea. 

 Patients suffering from acute mania likewise have parox- 



8 ' 



The Origin of Civilization,' 1870, p. 355. 



