I
recall a small band of medical students, gathered together from a
large medical school, who were accustomed to meet together for
prayer and Bible-reading; the majority showed this type of mouth
to a very marked degree: pale faces, with drawn, retracted lips.
It may be termed the Christian or pious _facies_. It is much less
frequently seen in religious women (unless of masculine type),
doubtless because religion for women is in a much less degree
than for men a moral discipline.
It may be added that an interesting form of this contraction of
the lips, and one that is not purely repressive, is that which
indicates the state of muscular tension associated with the
impulse to guard and protect. In this form the contracted mouth
is the index of tenderness, and is characteristic of the mother
who is watching over the infant she is suckling at her breast. I
have observed precisely the same expression in the face of a boy
of 14 with a large congenital scrotal hernia; when the tumor was
being examined his lower lip became retracted, well marked lines
appearing from the angles downwards, though the upper lip
retained its normal expression It was precisely the tender look
we may see in the faces of mothers who are watching anxiously
over their offspring, and the emotion is evidently the same in
both cases: solicitude for a sensitive and tenderly guarded
object.
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