Dr. Duchenne has given a large photograph of an old man (reduced on
Plate III. fig 4), in his usual passive condition, and another of the
same man (fig. 5), naturally smiling. The latter was instantly
recognized by every one to whom it was shown as true to nature. He has
also given, as an example of an unnatural or false smile, another
photograph (fig. 6) of the same old man, with the corners of his mouth
strongly retracted by the galvanization of the great zygomatic muscles.
That the expression is not natural is clear, for I showed this
photograph to twenty-four persons, of whom three could not in the least
tell what was meant, whilst the others, though they perceived that the
expression was of the nature of a smile, answered in such words as “a
wicked joke,” “trying to laugh,” “grinning laughter.... half-amazed
laughter,” &c. Dr. Duchenne attributes the falseness of the expression
altogether to the orbicular muscles of the lower eyelids not being
sufficiently contracted; for he justly lays great stress on their
contraction in the expression of joy. No doubt there is much truth in
this view, but not, as it appears to me, the whole truth. The
contraction of the lower orbiculars is always accompanied, as we have
seen, by the drawing up of the upper lip. Had the upper lip, in fig. 6,
been thus acted on to a slight extent, its curvature would have been
less rigid, the naso-labial farrow would have been slightly different,
and the whole expression would, as I believe, have been more natural,
independently of the more conspicuous effect from the stronger
contraction of the lower eyelids. The corrugator muscle, moreover, in
fig. 6, is too much contracted, causing a frown; and this muscle never
acts under the influence of joy except during strongly pronounced or
violent laughter.
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