Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/698

680 Magdalen. If, instead of vertical wrinkles, horizontal furrows appear on the forehead while the mouth is wearing the bitter trait, we recognize that the man is occupied with painful recollections.

The physiognomy is most violently changed when the expression of fear is manifested simultaneously with the bitter trait, or when the vertical and horizontal wrinkles both appear on the forehead at once. In this way the countenance receives the expression of violent terror. Leonardo da Vinci describes this expression in very striking terms when he says: "Paint wounded and bruised persons with pale faces and elevated eyebrows; the whole, including the flesh above, covered with wrinkles, the outside of the nostrils with a few wrinkles ending near the eye. The wrinkled nostrils should raise themselves and the upper lip with them, so as to expose the upper teeth, and these, parting from the lower jaw, will indicate the cries of the wounded." Darwin describes other symptoms of terror and fear as follows: "The heart beats quickly and violently, so that it palpitates or knocks against the ribs. ... The skin becomes instantly pale, as during incipient faintness. This paleness of the surface, however, is probably in large part or exclusively due to the vaso-motor center being affected in such a manner as to cause the contraction of the small arteries of the skin. That the skin is much affected under the sense of great fear we see in the marvelous and inexplicable manner in which perspiration immediately exudes from it. This exudation is all the more remarkable as the surface is then cold, and hence the term a cold sweat, whereas the sudorific glands are properly excited into action when the surface is heated. The hairs also on the skin stand erect, and the superficial muscles shiver. In connection with the disturbed action of the heart, the breathing is hurried. ... One of the best-marked symptoms is the trembling of all the muscles of the body. ... From this cause, and from the dryness of the mouth, the voice becomes husky or indistinct, or may altogether fail. 'Obstupui steteruntque comæ, et vox faucibus hæsit'" (I was amazed, my hair stood up, and my voice stuck in my throat). This form of mouth occurs physiognomically among persons of a soured nature.

The sweet trait is opposed to the expression of bitterness; for while that seeks to avoid as much as possible a disagreeable sensation of taste, in it the muscles are set to play in such a manner as to gather up the gustatory impressions as completely as possible. The mouth is closed and the cheeks are strongly pressed against the teeth, so as to concentrate and retain upon the tongue all the parts of the sapid object, which during mastication and degustation glide between the cheeks and the jaws. In this way the activity of the nerves of taste is greatly assisted. The cheeks are pressed against the teeth chiefly by the action of the same