How to Read Human Nature: Its Inner States and Outer FormsAtkinson, William Walker
Science
How to Read Human Nature: Its Inner States and Outer Forms
Atkinson, William Walker
Character; Personality; Phrenology; Physiognomy
Professor Wm. James adds the following to the discussion: "So slight a
symptom as the snarl or sneer, the one-sided uncovering of the upper
teeth, is accounted for by Darwin as a survival from the time when our
ancestors had large canines, and unfleshed him (as dogs do now) for
attack. Similarly the raising of the eyebrows in outward attention, the
opening of the mouth in astonishment, come, according to the same
author, from the utility of these movements in extreme cases. The
raising of the eyebrows goes with the opening of the eye for better
vision, the opening of the mouth with the intensest listening, and with
the rapid catching of the breath which precedes muscular effort. The
distension of the nostrils in anger is interpreted by Spencer as an
echo of the way in which our ancestors had to breathe when, during
combat, their 'mouth was filled up by a part of an antagonist's body
that had been seized.' The trembling of fear is supposed by Mantegazza
to be for the sake of warming the blood. The reddening of the face and
neck is called by Wundt a compensatory arrangement for relieving the
brain of the blood-pressure which the simultaneous excitement of the
heart brings with it. The effusion of tears is explained both by this
author and by Darwin to be a blood-withdrawing agency of a similar sort.
The contraction of the muscles around the eyes, of which the primitive
use is to protect those organs from being too much gorged with blood
during the screaming fits of infancy, survives in adult life in the
shape of the frown, which instantly comes over the brow when anything
difficult or displeasing presents itself either to thought or action."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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