350 CONCLUDING REMARKS Chap. XIV. 



man the respiratory organs are of especial importance 

 in expression, not only in a direct, but in a still higher 

 degree in an indirect manner. 



Few points are more interesting in our present sub- 

 ject than the extraordinarily complex chain of events 

 which lead to certain expressive movements. Take, for 

 instance, the oblique eyebrows of a man suffering from 

 grief or anxiety. When infants scream loudly from 

 hunger or pain, the circulation is affected, and the eyes 

 tend to become gorged with blood: consequently the 

 muscles surrounding the eyes are strongly contracted 

 as a protection: this action, in the course of many gen- 

 erations, has become firmly fixed and inherited: but 

 when, with advancing years and culture, the habit of 

 screaming is partially repressed, the muscles round the 

 eyes still tend to contract, whenever even slight distress 

 is felt: of these muscles, the pyramidals of the nose are 

 less under the control of the will than are the others, 

 and their contraction can be checked only by that of the 

 central fasciaa of the frontal muscle: these latter fasciae 

 draw up the inner ends of the eyebrows, and wrinkle the 

 forehead in a peculiar manner, which we instantly recog- 

 nize as the expression of grief or anxiety. Slight move- 

 ments, such as these just described, or the scarcely per- 

 ceptible drawing down of the corners of the mouth, are 

 the last remnants or rudiments of strongly marked and 

 intelligible movements. They are as full of significance 

 to us in regard to expression, as are ordinary rudiments 

 to the naturalist in the classification and genealogy of 

 organic beings. 



That the chief expressive actions, exhibited by man 

 and by the lower animals, are now innate or inherited, 

 — that is, have not been learnt by the individual, — is 

 admitted by every one. So little has learning or imita- 

 tion to do with several of them that they are from the 



