Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/705

Rh former push the lower lip upward and the corners of the mouth are depressed, the red edge of the lower lip is turned outward. Under the influence of the levator muscles of the chin, wrinkles characteristic of the lower lip are formed in the expression of contempt as well as in that of stubbornness; but in the latter the wrinkles start from the middle of the lower lip and are directed in a straight line toward the base and outward, like the sides of an obtuse-angled triangle, while in the former they form, by tension toward the base of the triangulars of the chin, a curved line, the convexity of which is upward (Fig. 15). In both expressions the chin is flat, because its skin, under the influence of the levator muscles, is drawn upward and tightly stretched.

If vertical wrinkles appear along with the expression of contempt, and the arched eyebrows and horizontal wrinkles are wanting, we judge that the person is under the influence of both anger and contempt (Fig. 16). The expressions of contempt and bitterness may be combined, as signs of a corresponding complexity of feelings. The expression of contempt occurs physiognomically with pretentious, arrogant men, who are accustomed to measure the conditions and opinions of others by the scale of their own imagined excellence, and who are hard to satisfy. This trait is manifested in the eye by highly arched brows, horizontal wrinkles, and depressed lids. In the mouth, we perceive that the middle of the lower lip seems pressed up, and that under its red border, which is slightly thrown out, an arched wrinkle is developed, the convexity of which is turned upward.—Translated for the Popular Science Monthly from the Revue Scientifique.

a work on the "Constitution of Celestial Space," M. Hirn deals with the question of the existence of an ether and its possible tenuity. Among the curious conclusions that he reaches is one that the density of a medium capable by its resistance of causing a secular acceleration of half a second in the mean velocity of the moon, would correspond with a kilogramme of matter uniformly distributed throughout a space of about three hundred and ninety thousand square miles. This is a density one million times rarer than that of the air reduced to one millionth of its normal density in Mr. Crookes's apparatus.