WHY WE SMILE.

Waikato Independent, Volume VI, Issue 384, 11 June 1907, Page 3

WHY WE SMILE.

Smihr.g has been studied from a physical standpoint by George Punas, a I'Tcndi physiologist, and his conclusions on why wo smile are published in ’‘The Literary Digest,” translated and 'condensed from the He\ ue Scientiliquc,” M. Dumas produced artificial smiles by applying an electric current to the nones amlwr the lobe of the ear.

'‘The muscles concerned in smiling were made to contract, and the opposing muscles remained quiescent, but the action of the members of the smilhng-group was unequal,, so that most of the ’electric smiles’ that the experimenter obtained seemed to indicate grief rather than joy, particuflar•y since the contraction around the eye exceeded that around the mouth. Nevertheless, he considers the result a tiiumph tor his theory, and ex.v.bils with pride a photograph of a unilateral smile’ caused by electric excitation of only one side of the lace.”

Me says a smile may appear without any psychologic excitation and in itsell has’ no expressive value. "And man. ’ he says, "has formed the habit ol associating the muscular sensations and the sight, of these movements with am agreeable impression, so thnt he regards them as a sign expressive of this state of pleasure. To manifest it lie has /■formed, by association. the habit of smiling and of considering the smile of others as an evidence of their satisfaction. We have learned to smile in diHorent ways to indicate irony, indulgence, ite., and the accentuation of the movements of different muscles has a..,limed the same value as a. shrug oi the shoulders, the raising of the head or the pronunciation of certain syllables or words. It is thus that psychologic progress has made of the smile a keyboard on which we play '\iiii more or less skill. "The Oriental, especially, the .Japanese, always smiles out of polile-Ji'T-s. even when he is sad ; because it is a social fault to sadden a stranger. He has reached the maximum of selfmas ler.v and, in a sense, a superior stale of psychologic progress and of civ ilii-alion.” Al. Pumas says animals dot not smile with their faces because their lacml muscles are not, as in man. the most mobile. Those of his tail nre a dog s most mobile muscles, theiefore, ’he smiles’ by moving his tad. and this movement Ims a tendem.v. even in ins care, to heyonie a ?eal pest me. Oafs also smile with their tail, and perhaps also birds ; tile eieetde muscles of the features and tail are. with the magpie for instance, real smiling muscles.”

C.jOO a year is distributed in -dowries lo the girls of the town of llachmann. in Germain . A Polish nobleman lei i ike money for this purpose, and t!ii> amount of the marriageportion that each girl receives is regulated by t!*.e measure, of good looks that nhe possesses. A plain bride in given Toth and the j rettier a giri is, the less she receives from this land. Ihe donor's aim was to equalise the chances of marriage of the plain and the pretty. * * «■' # Iho -\ew Zealand Government has provired mr castaway crews by establishing depots where food and clothing may he obtained on several islands off the coast. Some time ago a Freii'-h crew, shipwrecked and cast upon t!v Auckland Islands, were sustumed for a considerable period b,V this thoughtful provision. At most (f the islands a boat is left also, and finger posts point out the way to the depots. The Government steamer , visits most of the islands twice a year, and no island is visited ’less than once a year.