Charles Bell was an anatomist, physiologist, and surgeon who lived, studied, and worked in Edinburgh and in London, in the 18th and 19th centuries. He wrote and illustrated a number of texts on these subjects, and was the first person to describe the course of the facial nerve and the consequences of its injury, which results in a unilateral paralysis of the muscles of facial expression (Bell’s palsy). Since I am a bibliophile, anatomist, and neo-Luddite, and because I am restricted in my travel opportunities for the next half-year, I will regale you with images and text from the collection of the P.I. Nixon Medical Historical Library, located on our campus. I’ll start out on a positive note with a lovely book by Bell on the anatomy of expression (Essays on the Anatomy of Expression in Painting, (1806) Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme Publishers: Paternoster-Row, London), but later I will have to lay down some smack on Sir Charles, for his Bridgewater Treatise.
One of the essays in this book focuses on a comparison of the facial muscles in man and animals, and Bell clearly has the not-so-hidden agenda of claiming that humans possess unique muscles that allow them to display evidence of their superior intellect. The two non-human animals for which Bell has dissection diagrams in this book are dog and horse, though he also mentions dissection of sheep and cattle. First, the dog, as an example of a carnivorous animal, and Bell’s dissection diagram is shown below (Plate IV, Muscular Apparatus in Dog). There’s also some very silly stuff about lions, but I’ll save that for another post.
Here are some of Bell’s labels and descriptions for the diagram:
“A.A. Circular fibres which surround the eyelids, common to all animals.
B. C. D. Accessory muscles, which I have called SCINTILLANTES, as they draw back the eyelids upon the eyeball, and give a sparkling fierceness to the eye.
F.G.H. Muscles of the Ear. There is in all animals a wonderful provision in the numerous muscles of the ear, for its exertion and tension to receive the vibrations of sound, and for the direction of the ear.
I.K. ….I call RINGENTES, as being the cause of the peculiar and characteristic expression in the CARNIVOROUS ANIMAL.”
Lovely post, Kristi. It also answers a question I should have been asking myself for years, which is the source of the information I have ingrained in my brain that only dogs and horses, outside humans and the apes, have the musculature for the display of facial expression. It must have been Bell.
Thanks, Henry. I just spent about two hours with Bell’s book this afternoon, and I have enough for a post or two on facial muscles in the horse (with photos of the plates, of course). Bell was an impressive artist, as well as a scientist and physician.
Anyone who thinks dogs don’t have facial expressions only have to look at a golden retriever…
