Number of muscles in the body.
There is a great number of muscles in the whole body to produce all its motions. There are about fifty in each arm and hand. In the whole body there are about four hundred and fifty, and each muscle is made up of a great number of fibres or threads, every fibre having its own work to do.
All connected with the brain by nerves.
Now all these muscles have nerves that connect them with the brain, and the mind tells them by these nerves just what to do. Each muscle has a great many little nervous ends scattered through it every where. The message from the mind that tells the muscle to act does not go to the whole muscle as one thing, as a message is sent to a person. It goes to each fibre of it, telling that fibre what to do. Every fibre of the muscle has its little nervous tube connecting it with the brain, for the nerves are bundles of tubes, just as the muscles are bundles of fibres. And each fibre gets its messages from the mind separate from all the other fibres by its own tube, so that each fibre is a workman by itself. How well these workmen pull together when they all get a message from your mind by their telegraphic tubes!
The endless variety of messages sent from the brain to the muscles.
Commonly it takes several muscles to make any motion, and sometimes many muscles act together. When this is so, messages are sent to a great multitude of fibres in these many muscles. Think of this. Raise your hand. It is not one muscle that doesthis, but many. Your mind has sent a message to all the fibres of these muscles, and they have all done their part in raising your hand. But now raise it again a little differently. A different message for this has been sent to all the fibres; and so for all the different motions there are different messages. It does not seem possible that so many different messages should be sent through the nerves to the fibres of all the muscles, and that these fibres should obey them so perfectly.
This is wonderful even in so simple a motion as raising the hand; but how much more wonderful when a great variety of rapid motions are made by the muscles, as in playing on a piano! How busy is the mind of the player in sending its messages, one after the other, to the multitudes of muscular fibres that work the arms and the fingers! And if he sings at the same time that he plays, his mind is sending messages also to the muscles of the chest, and throat, and mouth. And what adds greatly to the wonder is, that all this time that the mind is sending out so many messages, it is receiving messages from the senses. Messages are going from the sounds of the piano and the voice along the nerves of the ear to the mind. They go also from the tips of the busy fingers as they press the keys. How wonderful that all these messages are going back and forth so rapidly, and the mind in the brain manages them without any confusion!
I have told you that there are some parts besides bones that are moved by muscles. Different parts of the face are moved by them, and it is this that gives it its different expressions. Thus, when you are pleased and laugh, the muscles pull up the cornersof the mouth. If you laugh very hard, they pull them up very much, as you see in the face drawn here. See how this face is wrinkled under the eyes. This is because the muscles pull at the corners of the mouth so hard as to push up the cheeks.
The muscles used in smiling and laughing.
What do you think the difference is between laughing and smiling? It is this. In laughing, the corners of the mouth are drawn up a good deal, but in smiling they are drawn up only a little. Most people think that the eyes have a great deal to do with laughing and smiling, and they talk about a laughing eye and a pleasant eye. But this is not correct. It is these muscles, which pull up the corners of the mouth, that make the eye look pleasant and laughing; indeed, laughing and smiling can be done with the eyes shut. We often see a beautiful smile in the face of the sleeping infant. It is because some pleasant dream in his mind plays on the nerves that go to his smiling muscles.
The sad muscles.
There are muscles to pull the corners of the mouth down, and these make the face look sad; and if the muscles that wrinkle the eyebrows act at the same time, the face is both sad and cross, asyou see here. Observe just what the difference is between this face and the laughing face on the opposite page. The difference is merely in the corners of the mouth and in the eyebrows. In this face the two wrinklers of the eyebrows are in action, and so are the two muscles that pull down the corners of the mouth. Four small muscles, then, make this face sad and cross. But in the laughing face the eyebrow-wrinklers are quiet, and the corners of the mouth are pulled up instead of being pulled down. It is the two little muscles that pull up the corners of the mouth that do all the laughing in the face.
“Down in the mouth.”
You have often heard the expressions, “He had a down look,” and “His countenance fell.” These refer to the effect produced by sadness on the corners of the mouth. This explains also the meaning of the common expression, “Down in the mouth.”
The proud muscle.
There is a certain muscle called the proud muscle. It pushes up the under lip. It is chiefly by this that pouting, that ugly expression so common with some children, is done. When the eyebrow-wrinklers act at the same time, there is scowling with the pouting, and then the face is very ugly. I beseech of younot to get into the habit of using these cross muscles. Keep always pleasant and kind, and then those nice little muscles that draw up the corners of the mouth will always be ready to light up your face with a cheerfulness that shall be pleasant to look upon.
Snarling muscles.
The smiling of the dog.
There are some animals that have certain muscles in the face that we have not. These are the snarling muscles. They pull up the lip at the sides of the mouth so as to show the long, tearing teeth. You see them in operation in the dog, the tiger, etc., when they are angry. No animal but man has in the face either the frowning, or the sad, or the smiling muscles. Perhaps you will say that the dog smiles when he is pleased and looks up at his master. He smiles, it is true, but he does it only with his wagging tail, for he has no muscles in his face to do it with.
The chief muscles of expression.
How wonderful is the variety of expression in the human face! And yet all is caused by a few muscles, and the principal ones are those that draw up and draw down the corners of the mouth, and those that wrinkle the eyebrows.
Questions.—How many muscles are there in the arm and hand? How many in the whole body? What is each muscle made up of? What is said of the fibres? Is it common for a motion to be made by one muscle alone? What is said about raising the arm in different ways? What is said about the variety of rapid motions that are sometimes performed? What gives the face its different expressions? How is laughing done? What makes the wrinkling under the eyes in laughing? What is the difference between laughing and smiling? Has the eye any thing to do with them? What is said about the sad muscles? What about the cross ones? What is the difference between a cross and sad face and a laughing one? What is said about certain expressions in common use? What is said about the muscles of expression in the face of animals? What is said of the variety of expression in the human face?
Questions.—How many muscles are there in the arm and hand? How many in the whole body? What is each muscle made up of? What is said of the fibres? Is it common for a motion to be made by one muscle alone? What is said about raising the arm in different ways? What is said about the variety of rapid motions that are sometimes performed? What gives the face its different expressions? How is laughing done? What makes the wrinkling under the eyes in laughing? What is the difference between laughing and smiling? Has the eye any thing to do with them? What is said about the sad muscles? What about the cross ones? What is the difference between a cross and sad face and a laughing one? What is said about certain expressions in common use? What is said about the muscles of expression in the face of animals? What is said of the variety of expression in the human face?