The expression of the emotions in man and animals / by Charles Darwin ; edited by Francis Darwin.
- Charles Darwin
- Date:
- 1904
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The expression of the emotions in man and animals / by Charles Darwin ; edited by Francis Darwin. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![of expression, can indeed be assigned with much proba¬ bility for almost all the facial muscles. Sir C. Bell evidently wished to draw as broad a dis¬ tinction as possible between man and the lower animals; and he consequently asserts that with 44 the lower creatures 44 there is no expression but what may be referred, more 44 or less plainly, to their acts of volition or necessary 44 instincts.” He further maintains that their faces 44 seem chiefly capable of expressing rage and fear.”]7 But man himself cannot express love and humility by external signs, so plainly as does a dog, when with drooping ears, hanging lips, flexuous body, and wagging tail, he meets his beloved master. Nor can these movements in the dog be explained by acts of volition or necessary instincts, any more than the beaming eyes and smiling cheeks of a man when he meets an old friend. If Sir C. Bell had been questioned about the expression of affection in the dog, he would no doubt have answered that this animal had been created with special instincts, adapting him for association with man, and that all further enquiry on the subject was superfluous. Although Gratiolet emphatically denies18 that any muscle has been developed solely for the sake of ex¬ pression, he seems never to have reflected on the principle of evolution. He apparently looks at each species as a separate creation. So it is with the other writers on Expression. For instance, Dr. Duchenne, after speaking of the movements of the limbs, refers to those which give expression to the face, and remarks: 19 44 Le createur n’a 17 4 Anatomy of Expression,’ pp. 121, 138. 18 4 De la Physionomie,’ pp. 12, 73. 19 4 Mecanisme de la Physionomie Humaine,’ 8vo edit. p. 31.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b31346686_0020.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
