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Picture of the Month (October 2008)
Dedicated User Captions:
1. Top student Elenora M. (From the Yearbook of Cyclops College, 1876)
2. Mut zur Lücke!
3. Black holes produced by the particle accelerator in Geneva have started to attack humans... (by ww)

Read more captions (not voted, latest on top)

Study of facial expressions
This picture is taken from the pictorial atlas of Guillaume-Benjamin Duchenne de Boulognes threepart Mécanisme de la physiognomie humaine from 1876 (Part I, Part II). In his pioneering work, Duchenne studied facial expressions using low-voltage electrodes to evoke contractions of the facial muscles. To observe and represent his experiments, Duchenne utilized the then-new medium of photography. Some photographs in the atlas, like the present one, are partly covered to direct the attention of the viewer to the parts of the face relevant to the respective experiment.

Related Items:
Similar experiments have been carried out by Angelo Mosso (1846 - 1910), again documented in a photographic album: the Album dei Dolori (Album of Pains) is part of the Bibliotheca Mosso provided by the University of Turin, the exact date is unknown.

Picture Source:
Duchenne (de Boulogne), G.-B. 1876. Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine. Atlas. Deuxième édition. Paris: J.-B. Bailliere et Fils

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