Chap. VII. OBLIQUE EYEBROWS. 189 



cles, primarily for the sake of compressing their eyes, 

 and thus protecting them from being gorged with blood, 

 and secondarily through habit. I therefore expected 

 to find with children, that when they endeavoured either 

 to prevent a crying-fit from coining on, or to stop crying, 

 they would check the contraction of the above-named 

 muscles, in the same manner as when looking upwards 

 at a bright light; and consequently that the central fas- 

 cia of the frontal muscle would often be brought into 

 play. Accordingly, I began myself to observe children 

 at such times, and asked others, including some medical 

 men, to do the same. It is necessary to observe care- 

 fully, as the peculiar opposed action of these muscles 

 is not nearly so plain in children, owing to their fore- 

 heads not easily wrinkling, as in adults. But I soon 

 found that the grief-muscles were very frequently 

 brought into distinct action on these occasions. It would 

 be superfluous to give all the cases which have been ob- 

 served; and I will specify only a few. A little girl, a 

 year and a half old, was teased by some other children, 

 and before bursting into tears her eyebrows became de- 

 cidedly oblique. With an older girl the same obliquity 

 was observed, with the inner ends of the eyebrows plain- 

 ly puckered; and at the same time the corners of the 

 mouth were drawn downwards. As soon as she burst 

 into tears, the features all changed and this peculiar 

 expression vanished. Again, after a little boy had been 

 vaccinated, which made him scream and cry violently, 

 the surgeon gave him an orange brought for the pur- 

 pose, and this pleased the child much; as he stopped 

 crying all the characteristic movements were observed, 

 including the formation of rectangular wrinkles in the 

 middle of the forehead. Lastly, I met on the road a 

 little girl three or four years old, who had been fright- 

 ened by a dog, and when I asked her what was the mat- 



