486 ' PATHOGNOMY, OR 



Let us investigate each of these in the order in which I have now stated 

 them ; and devote our present attention to the former of the two. , 



Suppose a man of a mild but courageous disposition, reclining at ease, 

 and alone, beneath some overspreading forest tree, on a summer's evening, 

 should be suddenly surprised by the attack of a ruffian, who should at- 

 tempt to rob or murder hun ; — what would be the change of feelings and 

 of figure he would undergo ? The tranquillity of his mind would be trans- 

 muted into horror, rage, and probably revenge, or an attempt to retahate ; 

 while the negligent ease of his posture, the relaxed muscles of his face, 

 the natural vermeil of his cheeks, his half opened hps, half-closed eyelids, 

 and easy breathing, would suddenly start into tension, energy, suffusion : 

 he would be instantly on his feet, in an attitude of determined resistance ; 

 still trembhng with fear, he would collect all his soul into a strong and 

 desperate effort to overcome the wretch : his muscles would swell with 

 violent rigidity ; his heart contract with unusual force and frequency; his 

 lungs heave powerfully ; the whole visage become inflated, dark, and livid ; 

 the eye-balls roll and look wildly ; the forehead be alternately knit, anxi 

 worked into furrows ; 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 grasping 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 vo- 

 luntary muscular exertions, called for by the stress of the case, and con- 

 stituting 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 princi- 

 ple 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 instance, the effect of habit, or are suddenly called 

 forth, to operate some beneficial 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 consider smiles as expressions of kindness, be- 

 cause they are accompanied by endearments and acts of beneficence ; and 

 frowns, on the contrary, as proofs of displeasure, because they are follow- 

 ed 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 ex- 

 ertion to see his prey rnore clearly ; and his grin, or snarl, the natural 

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



I cannot readily adopt this hypothesis, as applied either to man or to 

 quadrupeds. The power of expression possessed by the latter is, doubt- 

 less, far more limited, than that possessed by the former ; but brutes still 

 have expression, and that too, in the face, as well as in the general move- 

 ments of the body ; and expression, moreover, dependent upon the peculiar 

 frame or feeling of the sensory, and therefore as strictly its genuine and 

 specific symbols, 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 



* Essays on the Anatomy of ]Expressioa in Painting, by Charles Bell, p. 84. 4to, 1806. 



