Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 20.djvu/604

ble of being turned slightly to the right, not at all to the left; yet, when an object on which the eyes were fixed at a distance was gradually brought close to the face, the eyes converged upon it, the right eye moving about fifteen degrees to the left to bring the line of its axis upon the object. Such an affection may be accounted for on Ferrier's theory by supposing that one of the brain-centers controlling the horizontal movements of the eyes had been destroyed. Most of the ordinary movements of the eyes in health are probably horizontal, and are least voluntary; and because they are very simple, and do not involve movements of the muscles of the eye, they are regarded as the least intellectual. The vertical movements are more complex, calling special muscles into play, and may, therefore, be considered more intellectual. From direct observation, it appears to me that intellectuality is represented by the movements of the eyeballs in their orbits. When an individual in looking at an object moves the eyes by the action of the recti muscles so as to direct them towards it, the movement is more intellectual than when the head is turned so as to direct the eyes in the required direction. A bright, healthy, well-developed infant turns its eyes well in the orbits in looking about; not so a dull, wasted child. Again, intellectual people usually move the eyes in their orbits in looking at any object; the low and vulgar often move the head in the direction required. The movements of the face, like the other forms of expression by muscular action, are generally symmetrical. Asymmetry is, however, seen in facial palsy, in sneering, and occasionally in the one-sided grimaces of very nervous people. Certain commonly marked lines in the face—horizontal and vertical lines in the frontal zone, the naso-labial grooves, the lines of the upper and lower lips, and the positions of the angles of the mouth—exist as the result of the puckerings produced by muscular action. Among the facial muscles, intellectuality appears to be most commonly expressed in the frontal and middle zones, and by the action of the corrugator and orbicularis-oculi muscles. It has been possible among out-patients to accept the facial appearance as a physical sign of mental as well as of physical and organic suffering. In cases where the muscular expression has been marked, some painful condition and some source of anxiety or mental distress has almost invariably been found. A person suffering from headache, or who "looks as if he had a headache," presents an appearance of depression, heaviness, fullness about the eyes, especially about the under eyelid; the orbicular muscle and adjacent parts are flabby, with the skin hanging loosely. If the patient can be induced to laugh, the muscle recovers its tone, the skin is tucked well in against the eyeball, and the appearance of depression or expression of headache is lost for a time. The life of the eyes is given, not by the eyeball, which is almost wholly lacking in expression, but by the conditions of the eyelids and of the muscles that move them, and in some degree by the muscles which