Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1898-05-18
SOMETHING About TEARS.
They Form the Dividing Line Be-
tween Man and Monkey.

Tears have their functional duty to ac-
complish, like every other fluid of the
body, and the lachrymal gland is not
placed behind the eye simply to ill space
or to give expression to emotion. The
chemical properties of tears consist of
phosphate of lime and soda, making them
very salt, but never bitter. Their action
on the eye is very beneficial, and here
consists their prescribed duty of the body,
washing thoroughly that sensitive organ,
which allows no foreign fluid to do the
same work.
Nothing cleanses the eye like a good,
salty shower bath, and medical art has
followed natures law in this respect, adj
vocating the invigorating solution for any
distressed condition of the optics. Tears
do not weaken the sight, but improve it.
They act as tonic to the muscular vision,
keeping the eye soft and limpid, and it
will be noticed that women in whose eyes
sympathetic tears gather quickly have
brighter, tenderer orbs than others. When
the pupils are hard and cold, the world
attributes it to ones disposition, which is
mere figure Of speech, implying the lack
Of balmy tears that are to the cornea what
salve is to the skin or nourishment to the
blood.
The effect OF tears on the skin about the
eyes. however, is intensely irritating and
inflaming. They keep the epidermis in
dark, puffy condition, and in legends only
do weeping women preserve the beauty
Of their great, white lids. The reason
some women weep more easily than others,
and all more readily than the sterner sex,
has not its difference in the strength of
the tear gland, but in the possession of a
more delicate nerve system. The nerve
fibers about the glands vibrate more
easily, causing downpour from the wat
cry sac.
Men are not nearly SO sensitive to emo
ton; their sympathetic nature-the term
is used in medical sense-is less de-
veloped, and the eye gland is, therefore,
protected from shocks. Consequently, a
man should thank the formation of his
nerve nature when he contemptuously
scores tears as woman's practice.
Why facial distortions should be the
usual accompaniment to the sobbing of
the gentler sex there seems no satisfactory
solution. 1t may be that the nerves,
which lead to the muscles as wires to
marionettes, twitch and pull them in this
fashion while they are at work emptying
the tear glands of their contents.
That the copious shedding of tears
(which breaks the ice bound letters of
the heart" is a healthy action, all physi-
clans assert. In some cases it is even
thought to avert insanity. Even here the
reason is scientific, for it is sign of re-
taxation of the brain nerves from tense
ness that was congestion.
Between man and monkey there is this
essential difference of tears. An ape can
not weep, not SO much because its emo
tional powers are undeveloped as the fact
that the lachrymal gland was omitted in
his optical makeup. So long as this diff
Terminating quality between man and his
primeval ancestors persists, we may laugh
at the theory of Darwin, so far as it re-
fleets upon our family tree; scorn all in
nuendoes Of "missing links"; and see our
handkerchief as the sign and symbol Of
mans craftsmanship in creation.