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Darwin Correspondence Project

From L. C. Wedgwood   [January 1871]1

Mary Owens 312 yr. old child has a habit of sticking out her lips when she feels shy, but as it is not a pout of sulkiness I do not know if you care about it.2 She makes no sound. The lips do not seem to become tubular (that is the corners are not drawn together, or hardly.) The upper lip is stiffened and projected beyond the lower one, (tho’ both stick out to a certain xtent) the lips sometimes not quite closed.

diagram

I have stupidly mislaid your paper about it & cannot find it. If I have forgotten any points I hope you will let me know, if you care about it.

Footnotes

The month and year are established from the age of Henrietta Susan Mostyn Owen (see n. 2, below); she was born 9 July 1867 (Darwin pedigrees, p. 11).
Wedgwood refers to Mary Susan Mostyn Owen and her daughter Henrietta; in Expression, p. 233, CD commented, ‘Some children pout when they are shy, and they can then hardly be called sulky.’

Bibliography

Expression: The expression of the emotions in man and animals. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Summary

Describes a pouting expression in a 3½–year-old child.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7063
From
Lucy Caroline Wedgwood/Lucy Caroline Harrison
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
unstated
Source of text
DAR 181: 57
Physical description
inc

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7063,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7063.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19

letter