182 MOVEMENT 



words, and to carry on a continuous conversation in 

 this way. M. Demeny was very anxious to know 

 whether deaf mutes would be able to make out a 

 conversation carried on by means of a series of photo- 

 graphs. The result of his experiment was most 

 satisfactory. The deaf mutes read from the chrono- 

 photographs the words which had been uttered. It 

 is unnecessary here to remark that without special 

 teaching this novel kind of writing cannot be 

 deciphered.* 



And now from an artistic point of view. What is 

 to be the outcome of this new method of reproducing 

 the movements of speech? Painters have hitherto 

 apparently paid no attention to the subject. 



In the most animated scenes, it is the general 

 expression of the features that conveys an idea of 

 what the individuals are supposed to be saying, and 

 the same holds good in sculpture. Kude has twice 

 attempted to represent, if not actual words, at least 

 a cry of imprecation or command. 



We wanted very much to know what sort of expres- 

 sion a man's features would assume when he uttered 

 a loud exclamation. The attendant at the Physio- 

 logical Station was the subject of our experiment. 

 He was placed in front of the objective, and told to 

 shout at us several times in succession at the top of 

 his voice. The series of photographs thus obtained 

 showed the periodical repetition of the facial expres- 

 sion, but so curiously contracted were the muscles 

 of expression that the appearance was rather that of 

 an ugly grimace ; and yet simply to watch him there 

 was nothing extraordinary in the man's expression. 



The peculiarity of the photographs was due to the 

 fact that they caught exceeding fleeting expressions 

 of the face— movements which were really ones of 



* C. R. de V Acade'mie des Sciences, t. cxiii. p. 216, 1891. 



