3. The Line in the Sand

In the period when he was researching for The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) Charles Darwin swapped correspondence with a multitude of people in different parts of the world looking for the human blush. The blush was of particular interest because it is a physiological, animal reaction; it cannot be cultivated or repressed. It is a behaviour in our species that could only be attributed to instinct, our fundamental nature, the raw creature, homo sapiens. Blood rushes to the surface of the skin to denote a particular reaction – anger, or shame. Darwin searched the world over for the human blush. During that same year, 1871, he wrote to the English sculptor Thomas Woolner. I dare say you often meet and know well painters. Could you persuade some trustworthy men to observe young and inexperienced girls who serve as models, and who at first blush much, how low down the body the blush extends. Several eminent surgeons have been observing for me, and with a single exception have never seen a blush extend beneath (and rarely so far down) as the upper 2/3 of the breasts.