As laughter is primarily the expression of simple joy, very young children do not, I believe, ever laugh in derision.
The partial closure of the eyelids, as Duchenne[2] insists, or the turning away of the eyes or of the whole body, are likewise highly expressive of disdain. These actions seem to declare that the despised person is not worth looking at or is disagreeable to behold. The accompanying photograph (Plate V. fig. 1) by Mr. Rejlander, shows this form of disdain. It represents a young lady, who is supposed to be tearing up the photograph of a despised lover.
The most common method of expressing contempt is by movements about the nose, or round the mouth; but the latter movements, when strongly pronounced, indicate disgust. The nose may be slightly turned up, which apparently follows from the turning up of the upper lip; or the movement may be abbreviated into the mere wrinkling of the nose. The nose is often slightly contracted, so as partly to close the passage;[3] and this is commonly accompanied by a slight snort or expiration. All these actions are the same with those which we employ when we perceive an offensive odour, and wish to exclude or expel it. In extreme cases, as Dr. Piderit remarks,[4] we protrude and raise both lips, or the upper lip alone, so as to close the nostrils as by a valve, the nose being thus turned up. We seem thus to say to the despised person that he smells offensively,[5] in nearly the same manner as we express to him by half-closing our eyelids, or turning away our faces, that he is not worth looking at. It must not, however, be supposed that such ideas actually pass through the mind when we exhibit our contempt; but as whenever we have perceived a disagreeable odour or seen a disagreeable sight, actions of this kind have been performed, they have become habitual or fixed, and are now employed under any analogous state of mind.
[1] `De In Physionomie et la Parole,' 1865, p. 89.
[2] `Physionomie Humaine,' Album, Legende viii. p. 35. Gratiolet also speaks (De la Phys. 1865, p. 52) of the turning away of the eyes and body.
[3] Dr. W. Ogle, in an interesting paper on the Sense of Smell (`Medico-Chirurgical Transactions,' vol. liii. p. 268), shows that when we wish to smell carefully, instead of taking one deep nasal inspiration, we draw in the air by a succession of rapid short sniffs. If "the nostrils be watched during this process, it will be seen that, so far from dilating, they actually contract at each sniff. The contraction does not include the whole anterior opening, but only the posterior portion." He then explains the cause of this movement. When, on the other hand, we wish to exclude any odour, the contraction, I presume, affects only the anterior part of the nostrils.
[4] `Mimik und Physiognomik,' ss. 84, 93. Gratiolet (ibid. p. 155) takes nearly the same view with Dr. Piderit respecting the expression of contempt and disgust.
[5] Scorn implies a strong form of contempt; and one of the roots of the word `scorn' means, according to Mr. Wedgwood (Dict. of English Etymology, vol. iii. p. 125), ordure or dirt. A person who is scorned is treated like dirt.
Various odd little gestures likewise indicate contempt; for instance, _snapping one's fingers_. This, as Mr. Taylor remarks,[6] "is not very intelligible as we generally see it; but when we notice that the same sign made quite gently, as if rolling some tiny object away between the finger and thumb, or the sign of flipping it away with the thumb-nail and forefinger, are usual and well-understood deaf-and-dumb gestures, denoting anything tiny, insignificant, contemptible, it seems as though we had exaggerated and conventionalized a perfectly natural action, so as to lose sight of its original meaning. There is a curious mention of this gesture by Strabo." Mr. Washington Matthews informs me that, with the Dakota Indians of North America, contempt is shown not only by movements of the face, such as those above described, but "conventionally, by the hand being closed and held near the breast, then, as the forearm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other. If the person at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him, and the head sometimes averted from him." This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.