But whether or not of service as a means of communication, the tendency
to perform opposite movements under opposite sensations or emotions would,
if we may judge by analogy, become hereditary through long practice;
and there cannot be a doubt that several expressive movements due
to the principle of antithesis are inherited.
CHAPTER III.
GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF EXPRESSION--_concluded_.
The principle of direct action of the excited nervous system
on the body, independently of the will and in part of habit--
Change of colour in the hair--Trembling of the muscles--
Modified secretions--Perspiration--Expression of extreme pain--
Of rage, great joy, and terror--Contrast between the emotions
which cause and do not cause expressive movements--Exciting and
depressing states of the mind--Summary.
WE now come to our third Principle, namely, that certain actions which we
recognize as expressive of certain states of the mind, are the direct
result of the constitution of the nervous system, and have been from
the first independent of the will, and, to a large extent, of habit.
When the sensorium is strongly excited nerve-force is generated in excess,
and is transmitted in certain directions, dependent on the connection
of the nerve-cells, and, as far as the muscular system is concerned,
on the nature of the movements which have been habitually practised.
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