Chap. VI. WEEPING. 167 



subsequent occasion the keeper made the old elephant 

 trumpet much more loudly, and invariably both the 

 upper and lower orbicular muscles were strongly con- 

 tracted, and now in an equal degree. It is a singular 

 fact that the African elephant, which, however, is so 

 diiferent from the Indian species that it is placed by 

 some naturalists in a distinct sub-genus, when made on 

 two occasions to trumpet loudly, exhibited no trace of 

 the contraction of the orbicular muscles. 



From the several foregoing cases with respect to 

 Man, there can, I think, be no doubt that the contrac- 

 tion of the muscles round the eyes, during violent ex- 

 piration or when the expanded chest is forcibly com- 

 pressed, is, in some manner, intimately connected with 

 the secretion of tears. This holds good under widely 

 different emotions, and independently of any emotion. 

 It is not, of course, meant that tears cannot be secreted 

 without the contraction of these muscles; for it is notori- 

 ous that they are often freely shed with the eyelids not 



«/ %} %/ 



closed, and with the brows unwrinkled. The contrac- 

 tion must be both involuntary and prolonged, as during 

 a choking fit, or energetic, as during a sneeze. The mere 

 involuntary winking of the eyelids, though often re- 

 peated, does not bring tears into the eyes. Xor does the 

 voluntary and prolonged contraction of the several sur- 

 rounding muscles suffice. As the lacrymal glands of 

 children are easily excited, I persuaded my own and sev- 

 eral other children of different ages to contract these 

 muscles repeatedly with their utmost force, and to con- 

 tinue doing so as long as they possibly could; but this 

 produced hardly any effect. There was sometimes a lit- 

 tle moisture in the eyes, but not more than apparently 

 could be accounted for by the squeezing out of the al- 

 ready secreted tears within the glands. 



The nature of the relation between the involuntary 



