1892.] 071 Emotional Expression. 663 



in the motor area, whence proceeds what may be called its " signal 

 symptoms "; and if the em(»tion be slight and transient, these alone 

 may suffice for its expression ; but if it be strong and sustained, and 

 more particularly if it be gravescent, the nervous vibrations initiated 

 at this centre spread to other centres adjacent, or with which they 

 are in functional connection, and result in varied, complex, and 

 extensive movements. 



All emotions of extreme and uncontrolled violence ultimately 

 involve the whole motor area of the brain, and some such emotions, 

 pushed to a pathological conclusion, end in general convulsions. 

 We actually see this conclusion reached when the religious emotion 

 is powerfully stirred in persons of excitable temperament. In the 

 dancing mania of the Middle Ages it was no uncommon occurrence 

 for those who had been caught by the mental contagion, and had 

 passed through a paroxysm of delirious excitement, to fall finally in 

 epileptic convulsions ; and to-day, alike in East and West, similar 

 phenomena may sometimes be witnessed. The religious transports of 

 dervishes, beginning in slow, monotonous movements of the hands, and 

 mounting into wild gyrations, not infrequently end in fits ; and the 

 negroes of the States, who at their camp meetings pass from slight 

 swaying movements of the body to frantic leapings and vociferous 

 shouting of that refrain which has found favour recently in this cul- 

 tured metropolis — " Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ey " — the negroes sometimes 

 tumble down unconscious and in violent spasms. 



But, short of this point of universal sudden explosive discharge 

 of the whole motor area of the cerebral cortex, there are always 

 differences in the grouping of the movements by which emotions even 

 in their violent phases are displayed, showing involvement in different 

 degrees, and in different combinations of the motor centres in the 

 expressional area ; and in the gradual rise and culmination of certain 

 emotions it is possible even now to trace out in a rough way the 

 lines of diffusion of the cortical excitation which correspond with 

 their gradually extended expression. 



[This point was illustrated by photographs of different stages of 

 emotional excitement, as exhibited by muscular action, and by indi- 

 cating how each of these stages corresponded with the implication of 

 a new centre, or group of centres, in the brain. The photographs 

 shown were those of a young Scotch girl, knowing nothing of stage 

 tricks or conventional artifices, who most kindly assisted by throwing 

 herself, at the word of command, into various emotional attitudes — 

 withdrawing the control of the will, letting herself go, as it were, 



and slip into the spontaneous expression of each emotion suggested 



and being instantaneously photographed while the expression lasted.] 



I wish next to direct your attention to the frequent association 

 of face and hand movements in emotional expression. Next to the 

 face, the hand is the great instrument of emotional expression ; but 

 perhaps this manual function has been somewhat lost sight of. 

 We all readily recognise the services of the hand in executing the 



