The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1891-01-27
THE FACE AS AN INDEX.
Influence Of the Emotions on It's
Appearance.
Bravo Men Sometimes Turn Pnlo In tho
Facc OF Danger AS Well as towards
Views of Learned individuals
on tho Subject.


the popular fallacies that unthinking
people cling to with I'LL the tenacity Of
ignorance. BY many persons the man
who pales md trembles under great en-
element is called NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
ever that may moan-and is looked
upon as coward. In fact, there arc
but fcw people who do not hold that ex-
cessivc pallor is one of the distinguish
ing marks of n mean, dastardly spirit.
An cgrcgious error this, and one that
should have been dispclled along with
the belief in witches, the divine right of
kings and similar popular monstrosities.
Well grounded in this bolicf, n reporter
of the San Francisco Chronicle set out
to secure data On the subject from re-
liable sources
do the brave turn pnlc?"
"Of course they do" sad DR.. J. F.
Gibbon, Of thnt city, to whom the tn
quiry was propounded, "and red, too,
for that matter"
ut is not, then, only the towards who
turn pale and 'trcmble in the face OF
dnnger2"
by no means" said the doctor; 81
have seen tho bravest men get as white
as death when laboring under intense
excitement / have seen men pale and
tremble under the excitement caused by
intense pain, and they were men, too,
who showed their bravencss by rcfus-
ing to be put under the influence of IN
nnnsthetic, and who did not utter q
single cry when the knife was inflicting
the most cXcrucinting fortunes. Under
the same circumstances / have seen
other men turn red, the blood seeming
to burst through their skin. The
truth is that the various ey.
prcssions of emotions shown by
men can not be made q guide
as to his inner thoughts and feel
ings. The only things these express
sions do show Is that the individual Is
undergoing intense excitement, but
whether OF fear, anger, valor or pleas
urc, can only be determined by the indi-
vidual's notions"
DR.. S. b. Clevenger, the famous writer
on nervous diseases, in n recent publica-
ton says:
The matter of blushing or paling Is
wholly beyond the control of the indi-
vidual, and differs with the individual
The condition of the heart has much to
do with these manifestations, MS has the
irritability of the brain. Rage, fright,
pleasure or pain, or excessive emotion of
any kind, often produces pallor in per-
sons healthy or unhealthy. Again. these
same emotions, or any one of them.
may be habitunlly displayed by great
retlncss or flushing Of the face. Or, ns
if to make matters still more complex,
person may pale ut one time and blush
ut another from identically the same
cause. So extreme in some persons are
these exhibitions of their emotions as to
be positive. sources of misery But
neither the blushing nor the paling, rs
rule, has any thing to do with the BRAY
cry or cowardice of the individual Dur
ing the war remember the remarkable
effect of o cannon ball passing within
an inch of my Coloncl's head while he
was ON horseback in the field. His
whole head and neck became as red as
o boiled lobster. AS broad rule it
might be said that pallor is more apt to
accompany intense emotion and blush
ing the milder emotion, but there can
be no cast-irOn rule In the matter. As
rule l have observed that men going
into action for the first time usually
exhibit great pallor. On the other
hand, though, ! have seen towards
shrink away from the fields In mortal
terror with faces red us bcets or with
out exhibiting any signs of emotion
whatever. AS the soldier sees moro
service md becomes more used to the
danger, the bloodshed and carnage of
the battlefield these scenes arouse in
him less intense emotions
Herbert Spencer, in his principles of
Psychology" sums up these emotional
expressions as the ''undirccted overflow
of nerve force"
While it is thus seen that psychology
lists and physiognomists and men of sci
cntific research are agreed that the ex-
prcssionS of emotions do not manifest
themselves the same way in the same
individuals tho question as to the origin
of these forms of expressions and their
various causes has not been so definitely
settled or SO clearly defined In the dis
cussion Of this subject Charles Darwin,
the great cvolutionist, gives some very
data. In his Expressions
OF Emotions in Nun and Animals" he
says:
"The most striking case, though
rare and abnormal one, which can be
of the direct influence of the
nervous system when strongly affected,
on the body, is the loss of color in the
hair, which has occasionally been OBJ
served after extreme terror or grief.
One authentic case has been recorded in
the case of man brought out for exc
cution, in which the change of color of
the hair was SO rapid rs to be perccpti-
bic to the eye.
Another good case is that of the
trembling of the muscles. or
all emotions fear VIGOROUSLY is the most
npt to produce trembling, but so do