122 Mr. Shaw o« the Facial Nerves. 



in about three or four months she regained the power over 

 them, and has since that time been in very good health. She 

 cannot recollect how long it is, since the child's face became 

 distorted, she noticed it for the first time about seven years ago. 



When the girl laughs heartily, the right cheek and right side 

 of the mouth are unmoved, while the muscles of the left side 

 are convulsed with laughter. If she be told to try and laugh 

 with the right side, she raises the angle of the mouth, but by 

 an action which is evidently regulated by the 5th pair. This 

 attempt to laugh gives a peculiarly droll expression to her face, 

 and, as I have said in a former communication, is probably the 

 same action as that with which we are so much amused, in 

 observing the face of a famous mimic. When the girl attempted 

 to whistle, she could not close the right side of her mouth ; still 

 she could purse it up (this action of the orbicularis muscle 

 being regulated by the 5th,) so as to hold a whistle which I 

 put between her lips, and then by blowing, she could sound the 

 whistle, but in doing this, there was no action perceptible in the 

 right cheek, for it was distended like part of a leathern bag, 

 while the muscles of the left were in full action. 



In this experiment it was shewn, that the muscles of the right 

 side, were in a state similar to those of the cheek of an animal 

 in which the portio dura of the same side has been^divided, since 

 their actions were paralyzed as far as they depended on this 

 nerve. 



My next inquiry was, how far those actions of the same 

 muscles which are regulated by the 5th nerve were perfect. 



The action of the right buccinator, during the time the child 

 was eating, was not only distinct, but she even preferred chewing 

 her food upon the right side. As this was hardly to be ex- 

 pected, I inquired if there was any thing the matter with her 

 teeth, which could induce her to eat, only on the right side. 

 Her mother told me that she had frequently gumboils on the 

 left side ; but the little girl, with much acuteness, perceiving 

 the object of my inquiry, said she had always chewed her food 

 on the right side, and she recollected that her grandfather used 

 to scold her for doing so, long before she had gumboils. 



