Topical Guide 881
Mark Dorset
Facial Expressions: Risus Sardonicus
Leaving Small’s Hotel, Chapter 2:
“BALDY THE DUMMY is still on the air,” I remarked later, at the bar, where Lou was again playing bartender. “I tune him in sometimes late at night when I can’t sleep.”
“Really?” asked Jane. “I don’t think I’d want to listen to him late at night in a darkened room. There’s something creepy about dummies.” She shuddered theatrically. “They make my flesh crawl. I think it’s the expression on their little faces, you know — that smile, that creepy smile.”
“It puts me in mind of the risus sardonicus,” said Lou, polishing a glass.
“What the heck is that?” asked Dick.
“It’s a bizarre grin that forms on the faces of tetanus victims, brought on by spasms of the facial muscles,” said Lou. “Not a pretty sight.”
[Convulsion of the] facial muscles may cause a characteristic expression called Risus sardonicus (from the Latin for scornful laughter) or Risus caninus (from the Latin for doglike laughter or grinning). This facial expression has also been observed among patients with tetanus. Risus sardonicus causes a patient’s eyebrows to rise, eyes to bulge, and mouth to retract dramatically, resulting in what has been described as an evil-looking grin. […]
In 2009 scientists at the University of Eastern Piedmont claimed to have identified hemlock water dropwort as the plant responsible for producing the sardonic grin. This plant is the candidate for the “sardonic herb,” which was a neurotoxic plant used perhaps for the ritual killing of elderly people in pre-Roman Sardinia. When these people were unable to support themselves, they were intoxicated with this herb and then dropped from a high rock or beaten to death.
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