The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals | Page 6

worth quoting, as specimens of the surprising nonsense
which has been written on the subject.
`The Physiology or Mechanism of Blushing,' by Dr. Burgess, appeared
in 1839, and to this work I shall frequently refer in my thirteenth
Chapter.
In 1862 Dr. Duchenne published two editions, in folio and octavo, of
his `Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine,' in which he analyses by
means of electricity, and illustrates by magnificent photographs, the
movements of the facial muscles. He has generously permitted me to
copy as many of his photographs as I desired. His works have been
spoken lightly of, or quite passed over, by some of his countrymen. It is
possible that Dr. Duchenne may have exaggerated the importance of
the contraction of single muscles in giving expression; for, owing to the
intimate manner in which the muscles are connected, as may be seen in
Henle's anatomical drawings[7]--the best I believe ever published it is
difficult to believe in their separate action. Nevertheless, it is manifest
that Dr. Duchenne clearly apprehended this and other sources of error,
and as it is known that he was eminently successful in elucidating the
physiology of the muscles of the hand by the aid of electricity, it is
probable that he is generally in the right about the muscles of the face.
In my opinion, Dr. Duchenne has greatly advanced the subject by his
treatment of it. No one has more carefully studied the contraction of
each separate muscle, and the consequent furrows produced on the skin.

He has also, and this is a very important service, shown which muscles
are least under the separate control of the will. He enters very little into
theoretical considerations, and seldom attempts to explain why certain
muscles and not others contract under the influence of certain emotions.
A distinguished French anatomist, Pierre Gratiolet, gave a course of
lectures on Expression at the Sorbonne, and his notes were published
(1865) after his death, under the title of `De la Physionomie et des
Mouvements d'Expression.' This is a very interesting work, full of
valuable observations. His theory is rather complex, and, as far as it can
be given in a single sentence (p. 65), is as follows:--"Il resulte, de tous
les faits que j'ai rappeles, que les sens, l'imagination et la pensee
ellememe, si elevee, si abstraite qu'on la suppose, ne peuvent s'exercer
sans eveiller un sentiment correlatif, et que ce sentiment se traduit
directement, sympathiquement, symboliquement ou metaphoriquement,
dans toutes les spheres des organs exterieurs, qui la racontent tous,
suivant leur mode d'action propre, comme si chacun d'eux avait ete
directement affecte."
[7] `Handbuch der Systematischen Anatomie des Menschen.' Band I.
Dritte Abtheilung, 1858.
Gratiolet appears to overlook inherited habit, and even to some extent
habit in the individual; and therefore he fails, as it seems to me, to give
the right explanation, or any explanation at all, of many gestures and
expressions. As an illustration of what he calls symbolic movements, I
will quote his remarks (p. 37), taken from M. Chevreul, on a man
playing at billiards. "Si une bille devie legerement de la direction que le
joueur pretend zlui imprimer, ne l'avez-vous pas vu cent fois la pousser
du regard, de la tete et meme des epaules, comme si ces mouvements,
purement symboliques, pouvaient rectifier son trajet? Des mouvements
non moins significatifs se produisent quand la bille manque d'une
impulsion suffisante. Et cliez les joueurs novices, ils sont quelquefois
accuses au point d'eveiller le sourire sur les levres des spectateurs."
Such movements, as it appeirs to me, may be attributed simply to habit.
As often as a man has wished to move an object to one side, he has
always pushed it to that side when forwards, he has pushed it forwards;
and if he has wished to arrest it, he has pulled backwards. Therefore,
when a man sees his ball travelling in a wrong direction, and he
intensely wishes it to go in another direction, he cannot avoid, from

long habit, unconsciously performing movements which in other cases
he has found effectual.
As an instance of sympathetic movements Gratiolet gives (p. 212) the
following case:--"un jeune chien A oreilles droites, auquel son maitre
presente de loin quelque viande appetissante, fixe avec ardeur ses yeux
sur cet objet dont il suit tous les mouvements, et pendant que les yeux
regardent, les deux oreilles se portent en avant comme si cet objet
pouvait etre entendu." Here, instead of speaking of sympathy between
the ears and eyes, it appears to me more simple to believe, that as dogs
during many generations have, whilst intently looking at any object,
pricked their ears in order to perceive any sound; and conversely have
looked intently in the direction of a sound to which they may have
listened, the movements of these organs have