As soon as the mouth of this lady began, involuntarily and unconsciously
on her part, to assume the proper form for a crying-fit, we may feel
almost sure that some nerve-influence would have been transmitted
through the long accustomed channels to the various respiratory muscles,
as well as to those round the eyes, and to the vaso-motor centre
which governs the supply of blood sent to the lacrymal glands.
Of this latter fact we have indeed clear evidence in her eyes becoming
slightly suffused with tears; and we can understand this, as the lacrymal
glands are less under the control of the will than the facial muscles.
No doubt there existed at the same time some tendency in the muscles round
the eyes at contract, as if for the sake of protecting them from being
gorged with blood, but this contraction was completely overmastered,
and her brow remained unruffled. Had the pyramidal, corrugator, and orbicular
muscles been as little obedient to the will, as they are in many persons,
they would have been slightly acted on; and then the central fasciae
of the frontal muscle would have contracted in antagonism, and her eyebrows
would have become oblique, with rectangular furrows on her forehead.
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