Lower lip

“ A mouth with full lips, but in which one side of the lower lip is larger and fuller than the other, was said by the old writers to denote ardour in love and general sensuousness. It is one of the signatures of Venus.
A wart just above the upper lip shows a coarse and cruel nature; a mole in the same place, love of the opposite sex.
Of course, the shape and placing of the teeth are not without significance in the character given by the mouth. When the upper gum shows above the teeth directly the lips are open, it is a sign of a selfish and phlegmatic nature. ”

“ The lower lip, very full, does not pout, but falls curtain-like towards the chin. It is the lip of a sensualist, and yet of one whose sensuality has not clogged but stimulated the digestive processes of his brain. ”

“ The same causes apply naturally to both lips, whether the defect be unilateral, bilateral, or median. Some of these deformities are more often met with than others, as, for instance, a median deficiency of the upper lip following cicatricial contraction due to a harelip operation [315] done early in life; in elderly patients a partial paralysis is found to affect one half the upper and sometimes a part of the lower lip, giving to the mouth a drooped and grinning appearance. ”

“ The gently curved, round, broad nose projects but little over the upper lip, which, instead of preparing the close of the oval towards the chin, is pushed forward like the lower lip, upward and outward. ”

“ The bitter trait appears in the upper lip, as if the person were feeling a disagreeable, nauseating taste, and simultaneously the lower lip is pushed forward and upward, as if in the desire to remove an insignificant object from the neighborhood of the lips. ”

“ They have delicate mouths which droop a little at the corners and the lips are thin, mobile and often a little apart; the upper lip is thicker and more projecting than the lower lip; the teeth are small and even. The chin is long, pointed and a little projecting at the lip. The head is oval in shape and full at the temples. ”

“ With the above modification of the Larger method a considerable loss of substance can be restored, the new lip being constructed of normal tissue of the lip lined with mucous membrane retaining the saliva. Naturally the secondary deformity, while great, is one that only changes the physiognomy, leaving the face symmetrical with slight cicatrices.
Berger Method.—Berger advocates replacing a large loss of skin from the lower lip, the result of burns, lupus, or syphilitic ulceration, by employing a pedunculated flap made from the arm. ”

“ The lips, too, are singularly pensive in their mode of falling down at the sides, although there is no want of richness and vigor in their central fullness of curve. The upper lip, from the nose downward, is separated by a very deep line, which gives a sort of leonine firmness of expression to all the lower part of the face. The cheeks are square and strong, in texture like pieces of marble, with the cheek-bones very broad and prominent. ”

“ Full, flexible lips, with a hollow in the centre of the lower lip, and with the corners turning upwards, show a joyous, hospitable and rather materialistic temperament, with good spirits and sense of humour. ”

“ The prolonged mouth-breathing imparts to adenoid patients a characteristic look in the face. The lower jaw is dropped and the lips are kept constantly apart. In many cases the upper lip is short, showing some part of the upper teeth. The dropping of the jaw draws upon the soft parts and tends to obliterate the natural folds of the face about the nose, lips, and cheeks. ”

“ Wrinkles must be painted across the forehead, furrows down the cheeks, downward lines from the corners of the mouth, and (very important) three or four heavy wrinkles painted around the neck to give it the shriveled appearance common to old age. The hollow over the upper lip should be darkened, and also the hollow under the lower lip. ”

“ Besides all this, their men, although they have neither hair nor beard, have the appearance of being old, even in their youth: this is partly occasioned by the formation of their lower lip, which is thick, fleshy, and projecting beyond the upper. ”

“ The constant use of a heavy pipe has caused a deep depression on the left side of his lower lip, and gives the whole mouth the appearance of being unbalanced. His chin is large and prominent, and his ears correspond relatively in size and symmetry with his face. When in repose his features are not pleasant to look upon, but when lighted up by a smile they become rather attractive, and generally cause his laughter to be contagious among his hearers. ”

“ At Point Barrow the men are remarkable for the irregularity of their features, amounting to a positive degree of ugliness, which is increased and rendered specially prominent by the expression produced by the short, tightly drawn upper lip, the projecting lower lip, and the small beady eyes. ”

“ Superciliousness is not safe after all, because a person who forms the habit of wearing it may some day find his lower lip grown permanently projected beyond the upper, so that he can't get it back, and must go through life looking like the King of Spain. ”

“ Where should be the nose, was seen only a blackened cavity—the cheek had sloughed off during life, and presented only a spongy and half decayed bone—around the eyes which were imperfectly closed, was a dark putrid line, while the throat was swollen, and what remained of the teeth of the lower jaw, were exposed to view, by the absence of the nether lip, which had perished as other portions of the face—yet reader, in that horrid visage she recognized her seducer. ”

“ As they mature, it opens slightly, but his weight alone is insufficient to bend down the stiff, yet elastic, lower lip. Energetic prying admits first his head, then he squeezes his body through, brushing past the stamens as he finally disappears inside. ”

“ Our lower lips would swell up to an enormous size and then break and fester. It was very painful, but when once cured we were not troubled again in this way, A good thick moustache was the best preventative, and I am sure a beard protected one's face a great deal. Some few of us shaved, but nearly all let their hair grow. ”

“ Lest the piece should slip through the hole in the lip, a kind of rivet is formed by twine bound round the inner extremity, and this, protruding into the space left by the extraction of the four front teeth of the lower jaw, entices the tongue to act upon the extremity, which gives it a wriggling motion indescribably ludicrous during conversation. ”

“ Of large frame, tall and broad-shouldered, with heavy massive face, high cheek-bones, a careworn dark blue eye, large straight nose, and compressed lips,—the under lip projecting slightly,—he would have been pointed out anywhere as a man not easily to be led. ”

“ The women suffer but little from this barbarous custom: a small spiral figure on each side the chin, a semicircular figure over each eye-brow, and two, or sometimes three lines, on each lip, are all they are required to submit to. Their lips are naturally thin, and well formed, but so preposterous are their ideas of beauty, that they endeavour to render them as thick as possible by this operation. ”

“ The face is decidedly, though by no means remarkably, handsome; the nose is aquiline,—the upper lip short and chiselled,—the eyes gray, and the forehead, which is by far the finest feature in the countenance, is peculiarly high, broad, and massive. The mouth has but little beauty; it is severe, caustic, and rather displeasing, from the extreme compression of the lips. The great and prevalent expression of the face is energy. The eye, the brow, the turn of the head, the erect, penetrating aspect,—are all strikingly bold, animated, and even daring. ”

“ The nose and mouth were delicate and almost ineffeminate, with lips tightly closed as though he feared to reveal emotion in opening them. You see women and children with mouths set in that thin, hard line when they know a wickering lip or catch in the breath will give the lie to their brave front. ”

“ The nostrils should be dilated as much as possible, as a free, wide, open nose gives a free, well-rounded tone, while a contracted nostril induces the nasal tone so much dreaded. A proper training of the facial muscles makes this dilation possible. Lifting the upper lip and projecting it forward aids the action to a great degree.
There is a strong tendency to unity of action between the nostrils and the lips and the soft palate. ”

“ The surface of the cheeks extends to the extremity of the nose, forms a double depression by the sinking of the cheek, which grows hollow toward the convex lip, and surrounds the mouth and the two lips. ”

“ But it is equally remarkable for mobility, and his most expressive results are produced by liftings of the high-arched brows and the play of passions about the flexible mouth. The natural line of his lip, not scornful in itself, is on that straight border-ground where a hair's breadth can raise it into sardonic curves, transforming all its good to sneering evil. ”

“ Well-defined, large, and proportionate lips, the middle line of which is equally serpentine on both sides, and easy to be drawn, are never seen in a bad, mean, common, false, vicious countenance. A lipless mouth, resembling a single line, denotes coldness, industry, a love of order, precision, house-wifery, and, if it be drawn upwards at the two ends, affectation, pretension, vanity, malice. Very fleshy lips have always to contend with sensuality and [Pg 198] indolence. ”

“ In youth the cheek is slightly rounded out from the lip, and in a side view it is usually the outline of the cheek which makes the little line at the corner of the lips in the Lefebvre and the Grellet Young Girl, and always in the side view of a baby’s head; but as the head becomes less babyish it is the muscles of the lips which cause this line. The muscles of the lips are exactly like those of the eye ”

“ Possibly, on account of the long time which must be occupied in stretching the orifice in the lip to the required size, the opinion of a woman with a large lip is always held in respect; and, if she should be opposed by a younger person of her own sex, she will contemptuously decline to enter into argument with a woman who has so small a lip. Some of them wear a shell ornament, like the stem of a clay tobacco-pipe, one or two inches long, stuck through the lip and projecting forward at a considerable angle with the chin. ”

“ The broad flat nose and the thick wide lips are often repulsive because they suggest the African, if for no other reason. But I suspect that the thick lips are also a defect because they are in themselves a hindrance to efficient speech, and more vitally because they connote an inefficient formation of the mouth, palate and glottis. ”

“ The upper lip has no furrow running down from the small and flat nose, but it is very large, and the mouth looks like a slit in the face when both lips are together. He has distinct eyelids; and when he sits and looks forwards, the chin reaches below the top of the breast and hides the neck. ”

“ As to the protrusion of the lips the position is between the neutral and advanced. In forming the non-palatal labials which are extremely heavy and dull sounds the lips are very loose indeed and even initially these sounds give the impression of more than ordinary duration, though they are actually no longer than the corresponding palatal labials. In addition to lip-protrusion the tongue is raised towards the u-position which causes a w-sound to be heard on releasing the lip contact. ”

“ Whatever the degree of opening, the jaw should never be allowed to become stiffly set, nor the tongue nor lips to be held tight, in any degree or way. These faults cause a tightening in the throat, and affect the character of the tone. It will generally be advantage to the tone if the lips are trained to be very slightly protruding, in bell shape, and if the corners of the mouth be not allowed to droop, but be made very slightly to curve upward. ”

“ Nothing of that regularity of curve which returns into itself, and might be produced upon a turning lathe, and no continuity of straight lines within the capacity of square and jack-plane, are tolerable in a human feature. Lips, slit with the straightness of a button-hole, or conical precision, or roly-poly globularity, would be equally offensive in the configuration of any feature of the face or general form. Cheek, chin, nose, brow, or bosom, put up into such rotundity and uniformity of line and surface, have that mean and insignificant ugliness that nothing can relieve. ”

“ There is enough rich color of lip, and fainter color of cheek, to relieve the whiteness of her complexion. The trouble on her face is of some permanence; it is not petty like that of the man's, but is at one with the nobility of her countenance. ”