Mr. Patrick Nicol has also kindly observed for me several cases in the
Sussex Lunatic Asylum, and has communicated to me full details with
respect to three of them; but they need not here be given. From his
observations on melancholic patients, Mr. Nicol concludes that the
inner ends of the eyebrows are almost always more or less raised, with
the wrinkles on the forehead more or less plainly marked. In the case
of one young woman, these wrinkles were observed to be in constant
slight play or movement. In some cases the comers of the mouth are
depressed, but often only in a slight degree. Some amount of difference
in the expression of the several melancholic patients could almost
always be observed. The eyelids generally droop; and the skin near
their outer comers and beneath them is wrinkled. The naso-labial fold,
which runs from the wings of the nostrils to the comers of the mouth,
and which is so conspicuous in blubbering children, is often plainly
marked in these patients.
Although with the insane the grief-muscles often act persistently; yet
in ordinary cases they are sometimes brought unconsciously into
momentary action by ludicrously slight causes. A gentleman rewarded a
young lady by an absurdly small present; she pretended to be offended,
and as she upbraided him, her eyebrows became extremely oblique, with
the forehead properly wrinkled. Another young lady and a youth, both in
the highest spirits, were eagerly talking together with extraordinary
rapidity; and I noticed that, as often as the young lady was beaten,
and could not get out her words fast enough, her eyebrows went
obliquely upwards, and rectangular furrows were formed on her forehead.
She thus each time hoisted a flag of distress; and this she did
half-a-dozen times in the course of a few minutes. I made no remark on
the subject, but on a subsequent occasion I asked her to act on her
grief-muscles; another girl who was present, and who could do so
voluntarily, showing her what was intended. She tried repeatedly, but
utterly failed; yet so slight a cause of distress as not being able to
talk quickly enough, sufficed to bring these muscles over and over
again into energetic action.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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