Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824 edition. Excerpt: ... Pain first rouses the faculties both of the body and of the mind, and from a dormant state gives us consciousness and real existence. It is bestowed upon us as a perpetual guard, forcing us to watch continually for the safety of the body and the preservation of life. From the expression of pain as a centre we may trace the indications of many of the mixed passions. In bodily pain the jaws are fixed and the teeth grind; the lips are drawn laterally, so as to expose the teeth and gums; the nostrils are distended to the utmost, and at the same time drawn up; the eyes are largely uncovered, and the eyebrows elevated; the face is turgid with blood, and the veins of the forehead and temples distended, the breath being suspended, and the descent of the blood from the head impeded. Much of the expression results from the strong action of the muscles closing the jaws, and the strong action and consequent stringiness of the cutaneous muscles of the neck R, plate ii., which at the same time draws down the corner of the mouth. In anguish mingling with bodily suffering the character approaches near to this of the marginal plate: the jaw falls; the tongue is seen, and instead of the lateral retraction of the lips, the lower lip falls; the eyebrows are knit, while their inner extremities are elevated; the pupils of the eyes are in part concealed by the upper eyelids, and the nostrils are agitated. The agony of mind is now added to the bodily suffering, which is most particularly indicated by the change on the eyebrow and forehead. In the marginal plate we have a man forcibly subdued in all his strength. The brows are more violently knit, (which I conceive indicate somewhat of rage and hatred unsubdued), and they are less elevated towards the centre of...