ON ACQUIRED FACIAL EXPRESSION. 387 



raising of the eyebrows ; and this, although not the least apropos 

 to the words spoken at the time, has instantly evoked a like 

 movement on the faces before me. The response was quite invol- 

 untary, and was a pure piece of instinctive reflex action. Why 

 does a yawn spread like pestilence through the room when conver- 

 sation flags ? I know of those who have started such an epidemic 

 by a little piece of acting, and not a mouth in the company (save 

 the guilty one) knew why it gaped. Have not we all noticed that 

 a man of marked individuality becomes a center of physical influ- 

 ence to those who wait on his words, so that his gestures, tones of 

 voice, and turns of phrase are reproduced ? I know a tutor whose 

 peculiarities of speech and carriage have been adopted more or 

 less by every one of his pupils during the last six years, and sev- 

 eral of them have come to resemble him in feature. This uncon- 

 scious imitation of expression is very noticeable in children. Has 

 it occurred to many careful parents that the good looks of their 

 daughters may depend in no slight degree upon their choice of 

 nurse girls and governesses ? 



For some reason which we can not fathom, the imitative fac- 

 ulty is so ingrained in us that what the eye perceives the brain 

 makes haste to reproduce without stopping to ask our permis- 

 sion ; and where two people live long together the facial muscles 

 of each are constantly receiving stimuli prompting them to mim- 

 icry. As in the case of the emotions, these influences may be in- 

 finitesimal at any given moment, and may give rise to no visible 

 change of expression. Yet in the course of time they tend to mold 

 the whole countenance, feature for feature, into an almost exact 

 facsimile of another. Blackwood's Magazine. 



THE most remarkable feature noticed by Prof. Krasnov, of Kharkov, in his 

 study of the distribution of plants in the island of Sakhalin, is the existence side 

 by side of distinct types of vegetation, due to variations, not of climate, but of 

 soil and relief. This, it is suggested, should be a warning against hasty conclu- 

 sions as to the succession in past times of distinct types of vegetation in Europe, 

 since it appears possible that they likewise existed side by side. In Java, which 

 he also visited, the similarity of the flora on the tops of the volcanoes with that 

 of the polar swamps suggested to Prof. Krasnov problems as to the evolution of 

 polar forms from tropical prototypes. 



A CASE in the Buddhist department of the Gallery of Eeligions at the British 

 Museum contains an apparatus for exorcising evil spirits which is used by some 

 of the Buddhist sects in Japan. It consists of a brazier surrounded by a small 

 tray for offerings, and bouquets of artificial flowers, the whole encircled by a rope 

 supported on poles. Before this lighted brazier the officiating priest takes his. 

 seat, and, reciting appropriate prayers or incantations, burns one by one a bundle 

 of one hundred and eight sticks. Each stick represents one of the wicked spirits 

 " that lead the heart of man into sin," and the exorcism of the whole batch may 

 be assumed to secure a certain immunity from attacks for some time. 



