S 6z THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



passional states of the physiognomy may be resolved into a number 

 of simple movements. 



And, just as he produces simple passional expressions by artificial 

 means, so, too, he effects the synthesis of the complex expressions. 

 Attention, which is produced by the contraction of the frontal muscle, 

 and Joy, which is due to the conjoint activity of the great zygomatic 

 and the inferior orbicular, are primary expressions. Whenever we 

 determine simultaneously on one face the contraction of these two 

 muscles, we get the physiognomy of a person who has a lively impres- 

 sion of some pleasing and unexpected news. If, together with these 

 muscles, we excite that which serves to express lechery — i. e., the 

 transverse nasal muscle — we get the type of attention directed toward 

 some lascivious object. If we associate the lines indicating pleasure 

 with those denoting pain, we recognize at once the melancholy smile. 

 When we combine the smile (by contracting the great zygomatic) 

 with gentle grief (by contracting the minor zygomatic), or, better still, 

 with a slight contraction of the muscle of suffering — the superciliary — 

 we have an admirable and touching expression of pity and compassion. 



These fine physiological dissections, and the masterly syntheses 

 they suggested to M. Duchenne, are nearly in full accord, as concerns 

 their results, with the most ancient observations of empiricism, with 

 the intuitions of painters and sculptors, as also with the teaching of 

 psychologists and moralists. Results of this kind add nothing to our 

 knowledge of the body or of the mind, but they will, perhaps, be of 

 service to artists who desire to be exact in the anatomical reproduc- 

 tion of the passional movements of the physiognomy. No doubt the 

 genius of superior artists is a sure and potent instinct, which leads 

 them to follow rules they know not ; and it is probable that neither 

 Raffaelle, nor Correggio, nor Titian, would have been a greater painter, 

 had he known, as modern physicists do, the laws of harmony and the 

 simultaneous contrast of colors. Nevertheless, this sure and potent 

 instinct, the germ of which exists in the elite of the artist-world, may 

 be to some extent acquired by laborious study, and hence the consci- 

 entious artist will understand all the advantage to be derived from a 

 science which, by giving him precise and certain directions, will save 

 him much preliminary labor and much fruitless experiment. 



Why is one special muscle of the face affected by pain, another by 

 fear, and a third by anger? In short, why is every passion inter- 

 preted in the physiognomy by regular, determinate movements, just 

 as the rhythm of the heart is modified ? To give the question a 

 more general form, is there a logical relation between gesture and 

 emotion ? This is a difficult question, recently put by Mr. Darwin, 

 and which he strives to answer in accordance with his usual doc- 

 trines. For him, instincts are habits originally acquired purposely, 

 voluntarily, and afterward fixed in the race by heredity. The in- 

 stinctive movements of the physiognomy, considered as passional ex- 



