430 



ON PATHOGNOMY, OR 



visage become inflated, dark, and livid ; the eyeballs roll and look wildly ; the 

 forehead be alternately knit, and worked into farrows ; the nostrils would 

 open their channels to the utmost ; the lips grow full, stretch to the corners 

 of the mouth, and disclose both rows of teeth, fixed and grinding upon each 

 other ; the hair stand on end, and the hands spasmodically clenched, or grasp- 

 ing and grappling with the assassin. 



Now, it has been made a question whether these rapid and violent move- 

 ments are instinctive signs of the passions prevailing in the mind, or volun- 

 tary muscular exertions, called for by the stress of the case, and constituting 

 the means of resistance. Which opinion soever be adopted, it must be 

 allowed to run parallel with the whole range of internal passions, and external 

 expressions. And hence, the advocates for the latter principle contend, that 

 the various transitions of feature, position, and attitude, which accompany the 

 different emotions of the mind, and indicate their nature, are, in every in- 

 stance, the effect of habit, or are suddenly called forth to operate some bene- 

 ficial purpose. It is from experience alone, we are told, that we are able to 

 distinguish the marks of the passions ; that we learn, while infants, to con- 

 sider smiles as expressions of kindness, because they are accompanied by 

 endearments and acts of beneficence ; and frowns, on the contrary, as proofs 

 of displeasure, because they are followed by punishment. So in brutes, it is 

 added, the expression of anger is nothing more than movements that precede 

 or prepare the animal for biting ; while that of fondness is a mere fawning or 

 licking of the hand. The glare of an enraged lion is the mere consequence 

 of a voluntary exertion to see his prey more clearly ; and his grin, or snarl, the 

 natural motion of uncasing his fangs, before he uses them.* 



I cannot readil}^ adopt this hypothesis, as applied either to man or to quad- 

 rupeds. The power of expression possessed by the latter is, doubtless, far 

 more limited than that possessed b}'' the former; but brutes still have ex- 

 pression, and that, too, in the face, as well as in the general movements of 

 the body ; and expression, moreover, dependent upon the peculiar frame or 

 feeling of the sensory, and therefore as strictly its genuine and specific sym- 

 bols, as words are the symbols of ideas. In man, indeed, the changes of the 

 countenance seem to proceed upon a systematic provision for this purpose; 

 they constitute a natural language, and this so perfectly, that there is not ai> 

 emotion in the mind which is without its appropriate sign ; while we meet 

 with various muscles in the face, which have no other known use than that 

 of being subservient to this important purpose: particularly those that knit 

 the eyebrow into an energetic and irresistible meaning; and those of the angle 

 of the mouth, employed in almost every motion of this organ expressive of 

 sentiment ; but peculiarly and forcibly called ^nto action in that arching of the 

 lip which is the natural sign of contempt, hatred, or jealousy. 



Mr. Charles Bell, to whom we are indebted for an elegant and admirable 

 treatise on the anatomy of expression in painting, supports this last opinion ; 

 but rejects the doctrine of instinctive expression in the face of quadrupeds ; 

 contending, that even in the passion of rage, by far the most strongly marked 

 on the countenance, the changes which take place in the features are nothing 

 more than motions accessory to the grand object of opposition, resistance, 

 and defence. t The inflamed eye, however, and fiery nostrils of the bull, can 

 scarcely be ascribed to this cause; for they add nothing to the power of 

 striking: they may, indeed, be proofs or effects of the general excitement; 

 but to say this is to say nothing more than that they are proofs or effects of 

 the passion they indicate, and, consequently, its natural language or expres 

 sion. They are never employed on any other occasion. " In carnivorous 

 animals," observes Mr. Bell, " the eyeball is terrible, and the retraction of the 

 flesh of the lips indicates the most savage fury. But the first is merely the 

 excited attention of the animal, and the other a preparatory exposure of the 

 canine teeth." Now, if the first be merely excited attention, we must meet 

 with it in every instance in which the mere attention of carnivorous animals. 



• Eways on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting, by Charles Bell, p. 84, 4to. 1806. t lb- ?• 85, 86. 



