Chap. VI. WEEPING. 173 



distension of the vessels and no uncomfortable sensation 

 excited within the eyes. 



Moreover, when complex actions or movements have 

 long been performed in strict association together, and 

 these are from any cause at first voluntarily and after- 

 wards habitually checked, then if the proper exciting 

 conditions occur, any part of the action or movement 

 which is least under the control of the will, will often 

 still be involuntarily performed. The secretion by a 

 gland is remarkably free from the influence of the will; 

 therefore, when with the advancing age of the individ- 

 ual, or with the advancing culture of the race, the habit 

 of crying out or screaming is restrained, and there is 

 consequently no distension of the blood-vessels of the 

 eye, it may nevertheless well happen that tears should 

 still be secreted. T\ T e may see, as lately remarked, the 

 muscles round the eyes of a person who reads a pathetic 

 story, twitching or trembling in so slight a degree as 

 hardly to be detected. In this case there has been no 

 screaming and no distension of the blood-vessels, yet 

 through habit certain nerve-cells send a small amount 

 of nerve-force to the cells commanding the muscles 

 round the eyes; and they likewise send some to the cells 

 commanding the lacrymal glands, for the eyes often 

 become at the same time just moistened with tears. 

 If the twitching of the muscles round the eyes and the 

 secretion of tears had been completely prevented, never- 

 theless it is almost certain that there would have been 

 some tendency to transmit nerve-force in these same 

 directions; and as the lacrymal glands are remarkably 

 free from the control of the will, they would be emi- 

 nently liable still to act, thus betra} T ing, though there 

 were no other outward signs, the pathetic thoughts 

 which were passing through the person's mind. 



As a further illustration of the view here advanced, 



