An excellent observer,[5] in
describing a baby crying whilst being fed, says, "it made its mouth
like a square, and let the porridge run out at all four corners."
I believe, but we shall return to this point in a future chapter,
that the depressor muscles of the angles of the mouth are less
under the separate control of the will than the adjoining muscles;
so that if a young child is only doubtfully inclined to cry, this muscle
is generally the first to contract, and is the last to cease contracting.
When older children commence crying, the muscles which run to the upper
lip are often the first to contract; and this may perhaps be due
to older children not having so strong a tendency to scream loudly,
and consequently to keep their mouths widely open; so that the above-named
depressor muscles are not brought into such strong action.
[5] Mrs. Gaskell, `Mary Barton,' new edit. p. 84.
With one of my own infants, from his eighth day and for some time afterwards,
I often observed that the first sign of a screaming-fit, when it could be
observed coming on gradually, was a little frown, owing to the contraction
of the corrugators of the brows; the capillaries of the naked head and face
becoming at the same time reddened with blood.
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