Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin ; with 29 illustrations from drawings by the author.
- George Catlin
- Date:
- 1890
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Shut your mouth and save your life / by George Catlin ; with 29 illustrations from drawings by the author. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.
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![variety of expressions and distortions from abuse, independent of those arising from the habit I am condemning. The Ear, the 'Nose, and the Eyes, being less mutable, and less liable to change of character and shapes, seldom lose their natural expression; while original IS^ature is as seldom seen remaining in the expression of the adult mouth. This feature, from the variety of its powers and uses, as well as expressions, is undoubtedly the greatest mystery in the material organization of man. In infant ]^ature it is always innocent and sweet, and sometimes is even so in adult life. Its endless modulations of sound may produce the richest, the sweetest of music, or the most frightful and unpleasant sounds in the world. It converses; it curses and applauds; it commends and reproves; it slanders, it flatters, it prays and it profanes, it blasphemes and adores — l)lows hot and blows cold — speaks soft tones of love and affection, and rough notes of vengeance and hatred; it bites, and it woos — it kisses, ejects saliva, eats cherries, roast beef, and chicken, and a thousand other things — drinks coffee, gin, and mint-juleps (and sometimes brandy), takes pills, and rhubarb, and magnesia — tells tales, and keeps secrets, is pretty, or is ugly, of all shapes, and of all sizes, with teeth white, teeth black, and teeth yellow, and with no teeth at all.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21045495_0093.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
