1862, p. 43 text). He admits, however, that the corrugator draws together the eyebrows, causing vertical furrows above the base of the nose, or a frown. He further believes that towards the outer two-thirds of the eyebrow the corrugator acts in conjunction with the upper orbicular muscle; both here standing in antagonism to the frontal muscle. I am unable to understand, judging from Henle's drawings (woodcut, fig. 3), how the corrugator can act in the manner described by Duchenue. See, also, oil this subject, Prof. Donders' remarks in the `Archives of Medicine,' 1870, vol. v. p. 34. Mr. J. Wood, who is so well known for his careful study of the muscles of the human frame, informs me that he believes the account which I have given of the action of the corrugator to be correct. But this is not a point of any importance with respect to the expression which is caused by the obliquity of the eyebrows, nor of much importance to the theory of its origin.
`I am greatly indebted to Dr. Duchenne for permission to have these two photographs (figs. 1 and 2) reproduced by the heliotype process from his work in folio. Many of the foregoing remarks on the furrowing of the skin, when the eyebrows are rendered oblique, are taken from his excellent discussion on this subject. two eyebrows, as before remarked, are not equally acted on. That the expression is true, may be inferred from the fact that out of fifteen persons, to whom the original photograph was shown, without any clue to what was intended being given them, fourteen immediately answered, "despairing sorrow," "suffering endurance," "melancholy," and so forth. The history of fig. 5 is rather curious: I saw the photograph in a shop-window, and took it to Mr. Rejlander for the sake of finding out by whom it had been made; remarking to him how pathetic the expression was. He answered, "I made it, and it was likely to be pathetic, for the boy in a few minutes burst out crying." He then showed me a photograph of the same boy in a placid state, which I have had (fig. 4) reproduced. In fig. 6, a trace of obliquity in the eyebrows may be detected; but this figure, as well as fig. 7, is given to show the depression of the corners of the mouth, to which subject I shall presently refer.
Few persons, without some practice, can voluntarily act on their grief-muscles; but after repeated trials a considerable number succeed, whilst others never can. The degree of obliquity in the eyebrows, whether assumed voluntarily or unconsciously, differs much in different persons. With some who apparently have unusually strong pyramidal muscles, the contraction of the central fasciae of the frontal muscle, although it may be energetic, as shown by the quadrangular furrows on the forehead, does not raise the inner ends of the eyebrows, but only prevents their being so much lowered as they otherwise would have been. As far as I have been able to observe, the grief-muscles are brought into action much more frequently by children and women than by men. They are rarely acted on, at least with grown-up persons, from bodily pain, but almost exclusively from mental distress. Two persons who, after some practice, succeeded in acting on their grief-muscles, found by looking at a mirror that when they made their eyebrows oblique, they unintentionally at the same time depressed the corners of their mouths; and this is often the case when the expression is naturally assumed.
The power to bring the grief-muscles freely into play appears to be hereditary, like almost every other human faculty. A lady belonging to a family famous for having produced an extraordinary number of great actors and actresses, and who can herself give this expression "with singular precision," told Dr. Crichton Browne that all her family had possessed the power in a remarkable degree. The same hereditary tendency is said to have extended, as I likewise hear from Dr. Browne, to the last descendant of the family, which gave rise to Sir Walter Scott's novel of `Red Gauntlet;' but the hero is described as contracting his forehead into a horseshoe mark from any strong emotion.