EXPRESSION AND GESTURE IN ANIMALS. 199 



larize them. It is noticeable, however, that they belong to that class 

 of muscles which are attached to bone by one end only, the other end 

 bejng fixed to the soft parts, that is, to the skin, so as to pull the in- 

 teguments in various directions, and produce folds contrary to the line 

 of direction of the muscular fibres themselves: thus, the horizontal 

 wrinkles on the forehead, are produced by the contraction of a muscle 

 (frontal portion of occipito-frontalis), the fibres of which pass vertically 

 down to the eyebrows ; whilst the folds produced at the outer corner 

 of the eye in strong laughter, are the result of the contraction of the 

 subcutaneous muscle (orbicularis palpebrarum), the fibres of which 

 pass elliptically, around the opening between the eyelids. The mus- 

 cles of the face are under the control of a special nerve, called the 

 facial nerve, distinct from the one which supplies the muscles of mas- 

 tication. 



Expression and Gesture in Animals. 



There can be no doubt that these are more actively manifested in the An- 

 thropoid apes and monkeys, than in any animals lower in the scale ; the atti- 

 tudes, grimaces, and imitative acts of those creatures, nearly, and sometimes 

 painfully, mimic those of man, and the mechanism of their production is simi- 

 lar. In the other Mammalia, the faculty of expression, however, and of facial 

 expression too, is by no means absent ; but by various actions, such as stamp- 

 ing, scratching, pawing, or wagging of the tail, by leaping or slinking move- 

 ments, they manifest distinctly, and systematically, their various emotions : 

 whilst the change of feature in the countenance, for example, of the lion or 

 tiger, or of the horse, exemplifies the possession of facial expressional power. 

 In many mammalia, the eyeballs become prominent during emotion. 



Passing from these to the lower vertebrate animals, features properly so 

 called, or at any rate, movable features, consisting of a soft integument acted 

 upon by subjacent bands of muscle, cease to exist. In Birds, these are replaced 

 by the immovable horny bill, and by feathers which conceal all parts of the 

 head, with the exception of the eyelids and eyes ; the feathers of the head and 

 neck, and those around the ear, are capable of being raised under excitement. 

 In the hard-skinned Reptiles, as in the snakes, there are not even eyelids, the 

 common horny integument passing like a fixed watch-glass, in front of the 

 eye, whilst even in the saurian and chelonian group, the eyelid is the only 

 movable feature. The same is the case even in the softer-skinned Amphibia. 

 In the Fishes, the features are still more simple, the surface of the face being 

 little more than a reproduction of the forms of the skeleton beneath, with a 

 few muscles moving the upper and lower lips. In all these cases, from the 

 Bird downwards to the Fishes, we miss, if not the movable cartilaginous eye- 

 lids, at least the variously formed cartilage-supported ears, the cartilaginous 

 and movable nose, the fleshy lips, and the soft and movable cheeks : and 

 accordingly, facial expression, reduced in its resources, becomes more and 

 more feeble, or fixed, as we descend in the scale. 



To the naturalist, instances of actions and motions, which may be inter- 

 preted as belonging to the category of expressional movements, will readily 

 recur in the case of the Molluscous Annulose, and even lower animals. We 

 allude to such movements as the retraction of the tentacles of an alarmed 

 cuttle-fish or sea-anemone, the defiant attitudes of many insects when annoyed, 

 and the rolling up of the oniscus or woodlouse, and other insects, or of spiders, 

 on the approach or contact of foreign bodies, movements apparently intended 

 to imitate death ; but these, and other like movements, are instinctive acts, 

 destitute of that element of internal perception or self-feeling which prevails 

 in true emotional or volitional acts of expression. 



In man, and in certain animals, there is one mode of expression which is 

 so peculiar and important, that it requires to be considered apart, viz., the 



