Expression Of The Emotions In Man And Animals

164: EXPRESSION OF SUFFERING: CHAP. VI.

ing by reflex action the secretion of tears. Accordingly

I / . | i I asked one of my informants, a surgeon, to attend to
r * _' *:. the effects of retching when nothing was thrown up
r '; ' *..' from the stomach; and, by an odd coincidence, he him-
f I"' : self suffered the next morning from an attack of retch-
^ '•' ' ing, and three days subsequently observed a lady under
f; i ! a similar attack; and he is certain that in neither case
\ l < an atom of matter was ejected from the stomach; yet the

orbicular muscles were strongly contracted, and tears

;j ' freely secreted. I can also speak positively to the ener-

'j getic contraction of these same muscles round the eyes,

\ ' . and to the coincident free secretion of tears, when the

£ (r abdominal muscles act with unusual force in a downward

i''' [ direction on the intestinal canal.

ff' Yawning commences with a deep inspiration, fol-

',! lowed by a long and forcible expiration; and at the

< ; • same time almost all the muscles of the body are strongly

I1 contracted, including those round the eyes. During this
\ t ' act tears are often secreted, and I have seen them even
! rolling down the cheeks.

i I have frequently observed that when persons scratch
some point which itches intolerably, they forcibly close

j .* x their eyelids; but they do not, as I believe, first draw a

"I deep breath and then expel it with force; and I have

* ' never noticed that the eyes then become filled with tears;

i but I am not prepared to assert that this does not occur.

| The forcible closure of the eyelids is, perhaps, merely a
part of that general action by which almost all the mus-

, , cles of the body are at the same ftme rendered rigid. It

] , ' is quite different from the gentle closure of the eyes

I ' which often accompanies, as Gratiolet remarks;10 the

|'f smelling a delicious odour, or the tasting a delicious

1 '>' morsel, and which probably originates in the desire to

j | shut out any disturbing impression through the eyes.

** 'Be la Physionomie,' 1865, p. 217.

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