I may here mention a trifling observation, as it will serve to sum
up our present subject. An old lady with a comfortable but absorbed
expression sat nearly opposite to me in a railway carriage.
Whilst I was looking at her, I saw that her _depressores anguli
oris_ became very slightly, yet decidedly, contracted; but as her
countenance remained as placid as ever, I reflected how meaningless
was this contraction, and how easily one might be deceived.
The thought had hardly occurred to me when I saw that her eyes
suddenly became suffused with tears almost to overflowing,
and her whole countenance fell. There could now be no doubt
that some painful recollection, perhaps that of a long-lost child,
was passing through her mind. As soon as her sensorium
was thus affected, certain nerve-cells from long habit
instantly transmitted an order to all the respiratory muscles,
and to those round the mouth, to prepare for a fit of crying.
But the order was countermanded by the will, or rather
by a later acquired habit, and all the muscles were obedient,
excepting in a slight degree the _depressores anguli oris_.
The mouth was not even opened; the respiration was not hurried;
and no muscle was affected except those which draw down the corners
of the mouth.
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