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12661 results in History of science

Page 364 of 634

  • CHAP. III - GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EXPRESSION—concluded

  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Book:
    The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
    Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009, pp 69-87
    First published in:
    1890

  • Summary

    We now come to our third Principle, namely, that certain actions, which we recognise as expressive of certain states of the mind, are the direct result of the constitution of the nervous system, and have been from the first independent of the will, and, to a large extent, of habit. When the sensorium is strongly excited nerveforce is generated in excess, and is transmitted in certain directions, dependent on the connection of the nervecells, and, as far as the muscular system is concerned, on the nature of the movements which have been habitually practised. Or the supply of nerve-force may, as it appears, be interrupted. Of course every movement which we make is determined by the constitution of the nervous system; but actions performed in obedience to the will, or through habit, or through the principle of antithesis, are here as far as possible excluded. Our present subject is very obscure, but, from its importance, must be discussed at some little length; and it is always advisable to perceive clearly our ignorance.

    The most striking cise, though a rare and abnormal one, which can be adduced of the direct influence of the nervous system, when strongly affected, on the body, is the loss of colour in the hair, which has occasionally been observed after extreme terror or grief.

  • CHAP. IX - REFLECTION—MEDITATION—ILL-TEMPER—SULKINESS—DETERMINATION

  • Charles Darwin
  • Edited by Francis Darwin
  • Book:
    The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals
    Published online:
    07 September 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009, pp 232-248
    First published in:
    1890

  • Summary

    The corrugators, by their contraction, lower the eyebrows and bring them together, producing vertical furrows on the forehead—that is, a frown. Sir C. Bell, who erroneously thought that the corrugator was peculiar to man, ranks it as “the most remarkable “muscle of the human face. It knits the eyebrows “with an energetic effort, which unaccountably, but “irresistibly, conveys the idea of mind.” Or, as he elsewhere says, “when the eyebrows are knit, energy of “mind is apparent, and there is the mingling of thought “and emotion with the savage and brutal rage of the “mere animal.” There is much truth in these remarks, but hardly the whole truth. Dr. Duchenne has called the corrugator the muscle of reflection but this name, without some limitation, cannot be considered as quite correct.

    A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance, and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow. A half-starved man may think intently how to obtain food, but he probably will not frown unless he encounters either in thought or action some difficulty, or finds the food when obtained nauseous. I have noticed that almost everyone instantly frowns if he perceives a strange or bad taste in what he is eating.

Page 364 of 634