250 THE HUMAN BODY. 



face, takes the greatest variety of tints, from a violet red to a 

 livid pallor, under the influence of physical or moral causes, 

 which quicken or retard the circulation of the blood; but 

 besides the colouring of the face, it is the movement of the 

 muscles, and the expression of the eyes, which gives it a 

 definite signification. 



In a feeble man the motion of the heart is retarded, or 

 sometimes hurried, as if to make up in the number of its 

 beats for their want of energy; the blood is not sent to the 

 surface in sufficient quantity, and the face is pale; but the 

 languor of form and look denote the cause of the pallor. 



Cold causes contraction of the tissues, the circulation is 

 impeded on the surface of the body, the features seem 

 pinched, the lips, nose, and cheeks take a livid leaden hue; 

 chills sometimes shake the limbs and the lower jaw; on the 

 face, as well as over the whole body, the integument is the 

 seat of a painful constriction, but the eyes only express suf- 

 fering. When an assassin reproached Bailly with being 

 afraid, he replied, "No, my friend, I am cold." 



Violent exercise, joy, confusion, fury, all quicken the 

 action of the heart, and precipitate the movement of the 

 blood through the teguments, which relax or yield to the 

 impulsion of the fluid; but the open mouth, the dilated 

 nostrils, the heaving chest, the strong and rapid respiration, 

 express, as well as the features, an agitation purely physical, 

 and we are not tempted to assign a moral cause for the flush 

 which follows muscular effort. The serenity and expansion 

 of the features, the smile, the brightness and happiness ex- 

 pressed in the eye when the face is flushed with joy, have 

 nothing in common with the downcast eyes, the falling lip, 

 the muscular weakness, and embarrassed manner of the man 

 who reddens with confusion. We easily recognize also the 

 haggard and threatening eyes, the knitted brow, the com- 

 pressed lips, and the violently contracted or strongly agitated 

 muscles of a man who is a prey to anger, and in whom the 

 blood, at first impeded in its course, now in its reaction 

 forcibly injects the integuments. 



We see by these few examples that the colouring of the 

 skin, varying under the influence of the most diverse causes, 



