The Journal of Psychological Medicine.
Edited by William A. Hammond, M.D.
New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1870.
volume IV., no. 1 (January 1870), pp. 76-87, ill.
Illustrations: 3 woodburytypes mounted on 3 separate sheets of heavy
paper stock.
Photographer: Adrien Tournachon.
23.5cm.
Subject: physiology, electrophysiology.
Rather than present a simple listing for this review by Dr. Edgeworth on Duchenne's landmark opus—
Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, ou analyse électro-physiologique de l'expression des passions des arts plastiques.
—I have decided instead to present the text of the article in
its entirety. The obvious reason for doing this is that there
is no copy available on the internet. There are however, numerous
articles on the Mécanisme Physionomie available, both on the web and
in print, the authors of which may or may not be aware of this
rare period writing by an obscure nineteenth century physician.
The following clarifications of the plates will assist in the reading the article: Plate I. actually appears as the frontispiece to the Mécanisme Physionomie and shows the "old man" presenting with complete insensibility in his facial nerves. By selecting for neuraesthenia of the mimetic nerves, Duchenne had subjects who were not discomfited by the shocks of the experiments and who wouldn't exhibit the twitches and mouillations from pain that could be misinterpreted as emotion. Plates II. and III. are actually composites of three plates that appear in the Duchenne; specifically, Plate II. is a composite of Duchenne's Planche 4 with the first two rows of Planche 8 attached to the bottom. Similarly, Plate III. in the Edgeworth article is a composite of the bottom two rows of Planche 8 cut off and affixed to the top of Planche 9. Finally, Edgeworth cites vignettes 16, 17, and 18 but does not provide the images for inspection. Most likely this was because of the expense involved.