854 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 283. 



whole arterial vascular system is dilated, 

 with consequent blushing from the effect on 

 the dermal capillaries of the face and neck, 

 and at times of the scalp and hands. From 

 this same cause in the main the eyes often 

 slightly bulge forwards and the lachrymal 

 gland becomes active, ordinarily to a degree 

 only to cause a ' brightening' of the eyes, 

 but often to such an extent that the tears 

 overflow entirely their proper channels. 

 The whole glandular system of the body 

 seems to be likewise regularly stimulated 

 (pleasantness being sthenic to the organ- 

 ism), causing the secretions, gastric, saliv- 

 ary, sudoral, mammary, genital, to be aug- 

 mented, with a consequent rise of body- 

 temperature and a general expansion of 

 cellular activity . Volubility is almost regu- 

 larly increased, and is indeed one of the 

 most sensitive and constant of the psy- 

 chophysical signs of moderate delight, al- 

 though often quite inhibited in the excessive 

 degrees of joy. 



In the true scientific spirit, without 

 thought doubtless of desecrating the fame of 

 ' the human face divine,' the most beautiful 

 of things, Angelo Mosso calls the face ' a 

 muscular funnel at the end of the alimen- 

 tary canal,' and in an interesting way he 

 accounts for the complexity of its muscular 

 portions by the obvious needs of seizing, 

 masticating, seeing, etc. Moreover he 

 points out four reasons why the facial 

 muscles are so mobile, and these are as 

 follows : first, because of their small size ; 

 secondly, because of their continual usage ; 

 thirdly, because of the close connection 

 of their motor nerve, the Seventh or Facial, 

 with the deep-lying cerebral centers ; and 

 lastly, because, as he thinks, there is no 

 mechanical opposition between them. Ac- 

 cepting the first three of these as un- 

 doubtedly valid, with the last it seems from 

 considerations soon to be suggested neces- 

 sary to disagree, because it is probably 

 erroneous. It is going back even to Aris- 



totle to maintain that function is more 

 fundamental than structure, and a reminder 

 of the affective opposition which obtains 

 in the face in the conditions on the one 

 hand of joy and on the other of grief is all 

 that is required. In the one case the 

 features may be considered as drawn upward 

 and in the other as drawn down. But in 

 structure as well as in affective functioning, 

 the opposition between these small and 

 numerous bundles of muscular fibres may 

 be clearly demonstrated if only the research 

 be conducted at the proper period of de- 

 velopment, the foetal, and if only the neural 

 paths and centers by which these muscles 

 are directed be considered as part of their 

 mechanism, as is philosophically necessary. 

 From no point of view other than this is 

 there structural opposition between any of 

 the muscles, for histologically all, through- 

 out the body, are similar (save as regard 

 differences which are here beside the point). 

 It is in fine a portion of our present thesis 

 that the muscles of the face are extensor or 

 flexor as are the other muscles, for the most 

 part, of the body — an opposition at once 

 functional and morphologic. 



Now continuing to confine ourselves 

 mainly to the facial manifestations of the 

 bodily side of laughter (for it is here that 

 the greatest general interest lies) , let us see 

 what are the broad general principles or 

 biologic tendencies which underlie and 

 make the smile and laugh what in fact it is. 



In a monograph named ' The Emotion 

 of Joy' (Macmillans, April, 1899), the 

 writer summarized the results from nearly 

 three years of research in the psychological 

 laboratories of Harvard and Columbia Uni- 

 versities into the bodily processes which re- 

 spectively correspond to pleasant and to 

 unpleasant periods of consciousness. Some 

 thousands of experiments made during that 

 time on normal subjects (mostly students 

 and professors of philosophy), demonstrated 

 among other things that even in animals 



