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Darwin, Charles, 1809-1882

"The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals"


When the eyes are closed as quickly and as forcibly as possible,
to save them from being injured by a blow, the corrugators contract.
With savages or other men whose heads are uncovered, the eyebrows
are continually lowered and contracted to serve as a shade against
a too strong light; and this is effected partly by the corrugators.
This movement would have been more especially serviceable to man,
as soon as his early progenitors held their heads erect.
Lastly, Prof. Donders believes (`Archives of Medicine,' ed.
by L. Beale, 1870, vol. v. p. 34), that the corrugators are brought
into action in causing the eyeball to advance in accommodation
for proximity in vision.
A man may be absorbed in the deepest thought, and his brow
will remain smooth until he encounters some obstacle in his
train of reasoning, or is interrupted by some disturbance,
and then a frown passes like a shadow over his brow.
A half-starved man may think intently how to obtain food,
but he probably will not frown unless he encounters either in thought
or action some difficulty, or finds the food when obtained nauseous.
I have noticed that almost everyone instantly frowns if
he perceives a strange or bad taste in what he is eating.


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