Chap. VI. WEEPING. 1G3 



glands do not, from the want of practice or some other 

 cause, come to full functional activity at a very early 

 period of life. With children at a somewhat later age, 

 crying out or wailing from any distress is so regularly 

 accompanied by the shedding of tears, that weeping and 

 crying are synonymous terms. 18 



JO J *> 



Under the opposite emotion of great joy or amuse- 

 ment, as long as laughter is moderate there is hardly 

 any contraction of the muscles round the eyes, so that 

 there is no frowning; but when peals of loud laughter 

 are uttered, with rapid and violent spasmodic expira- 

 tions, tears stream down the face. I have more than 

 once noticed the face of a person, after a paroxysm of 

 violent laughter, and I could see that the orbicular mus- 

 cles and those running to the upper lip were still par- 

 tially contracted, which together with the tear-stained 

 cheeks gave to the upper half of the face an expression 

 not to be distinguished from that of a child still blub- 

 bering from grief. The fact of tears streaming down the 

 face during violent laughter is common to all the races 

 of mankind, as we shall see in a future chapter. 



In violent coughing, especially when a person is half- 

 choked, the face becomes purple, the veins distended, 

 the orbicular muscles strongly contracted, and tears run 

 down the cheeks. Even after a fit of ordinary cough- 

 ing, almost every one has to wipe his eyes. In violent 

 vomiting or retching, as I have myself experienced and 

 seen in others, the orbicular muscles are strongly con- 

 tracted, and tears sometimes flow freely down the cheeks. 

 It has been suggested to me that this may be due to irri- 

 tating matter being injected into the nostrils, and caus- 



18 Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood (Diet, of English Ety- 

 mology, 1859, vol. i. p. 410) says, " the verb to weep comes 

 from Anglo-Saxon wop, the primary meaning of which 

 is simply outcry." 



