384 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



countenance with, great distinctness. For the space of some 

 twenty minutes, during which I was her fellow-passenger, the 

 dimples of that parting smile would ever and anon appear, but in 

 so slight a degree that, unless the opportunities for observation 

 had been exceptional, they would not have been noticed. The 

 movements of the muscles were so subtle that it was absolutely 

 impossible to analyze them, or even to discern them severally. 

 They were 



"... like the borealis race, 

 That flit ere you can point their place." 



Yet one could gauge from moment to moment the depth, and to 

 some extent the nature, of her thoughts of her lover. 



Let me strongly recommend all physiognomists who travel by 

 rail not to spend their time in the perusal of text-books, while 

 they have before them a row of living documents inscribed all 

 over with the very aphorisms of the art. The opportunities for 

 observation afforded by the British traveling hutch are such as to 

 make one forgive its manifold inconveniences. Take the instance 

 of the old lady who is perturbed about the safety of her ticket 

 and her luggage. Her totality of expression has a heavy ground- 

 work of care, upon which start and nicker endless additional 

 lines, as this or that possibility of trouble crosses her mind. It 

 requires some self-restraint on the part of the enthusiastic student 

 to refrain from making such a one the subject of physiognomical 

 research by hinting various moving hypotheses concerning the 

 perils of the journey or the fate of her numerous packages. Let 

 him not forget, however, that although such experiments are not 

 forbidden by the Vivisection Act, the methods of Parrhasius are 

 out of harmony with the spirit of the nineteenth Christian 

 century. 



The incessant flow of involuntary nerve-currents to the facial 

 muscles doubtless accounts foi* the odd similarity of expression 

 among men of the same vocation. In many such cases the con- 

 ditions are so complex that it seenis impossible to lay one's finger 

 upon the special items of environment which conduce to the fa- 

 cial characteristics exhibited by nearly all members of certain 

 trades and professions. What, for instance, is there about the 

 process of making shoes which evokes the unmistakable cobbler's 

 visage ? The portrait of Edward, the Banff naturalist, in Mr. 

 Smiles's book, shows the type in a marked degree. As far as 

 my own observation carries me, the cause must be looked for in 

 the last, lapstone, and wax-end of old-fashioned cordwainery; 

 since men who work the machines in modern boot factories, or 

 who do ordinary repairing, do not exhibit the expression. It ap- 

 pears probable that the tailor's distinctive type of face may have 



