From the several foregoing cases with respect to Man, there can,
I think, be no doubt that the contraction of the muscles round
the eyes, during violent expiration or when the expanded chest
is forcibly compressed, is, in some manner, intimately connected
with the secretion of tears. This holds good under widely
different emotions, and independently of any emotion. It is not,
of course, meant that tears cannot be secreted without the contraction
of these muscles; for it is notorious that they are often freely
shed with the eyelids not closed, and with the brows unwrinkled.
The contraction must be both involuntary and prolonged,
as during a choking fit, or energetic, as during a sneeze.
The mere involuntary winking of the eyelids, though often repeated,
does not bring tears into the eyes. Nor does the voluntary and
prolonged contraction of the several surrounding muscles suffice.
As the lacrymal glands of children are easily excited, I persuaded
my own and several other children of different ages to contract
these muscles repeatedly with their utmost force, and to continue
doing so as long as they possibly could; but this produced hardly
any effect.
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