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Show 356 CONCLUDING REMARKS CHAP. XIV. any I.n h eri" t e d movemen t. , which now serves as a m. eans of expressi.o n, was a t first voluntarily .a nd conscious]y .{! per1orme d 1..{! 0r th· "I S sp eci'al purpose ' -hke some of the ges t ures an d th e fi ng er- language used b. y the. deaf and dumb. On the contrary, every true or Inhented move-ment of express1.o n seems to have had some na. tural and I.n d epen d en t ori·g1·n . But wh.e n once acq., m. red, such movemen ts may be voluntarily and cEo nscio·u sf:l y em·-r ployed as a means of communication. ven In ants, I carefully attended to, £nd out at a very early age t~at their screaming brings relief, and they soon voluntanly practise it. We. may frequently see a person .. voluntarily raising his eyebrows to ~x.pre~s surpnse, ~r smiling to express pretended satisfaction ~nd acqni· escence. A man often wishes to make certain gestures conspicuous or demonstrative, and will raise .his extended arms with widely opened fingers above his head, to show astonishment, or lift his shoulders to his ears, to show that he cannot or will not do something. Tl1e tendency to such movements will b~ strengthened or increased by their being thus voluntarily and repeatedly performed; and the effects m~y be .inherited. It is perhaps worth consideration whether movements at first used only by one or a few individua!s to express a certain state of mind n1ay not sometimes l1ave spread to others, and ultimate~y have become universal, through the power of conscious and unconscious imitation. That there exists in n1an a str.ong tendency to imitation, independently of the conscwus will, is certain. This is exhibited in the most extraordinary manner in certain brain diseases, especially at the commencement of I· nflammatory so f ten1·n g of . the brain and has been called the ''echo sign." Patients thus 'affected imitate, without understanding, ev~ry absurd gesture which is made, and every word whiCh CtJ.AP. XIV. AND SUMMARY. 357 is uttered near them, even in a foreign language.1 In the case of animals, th jackal and wolf have learnt under confinement to imitate the barking of the dog. Ho~ the bar~ring of the dog, which serves to expr s various emotwns and desires, and which is so remarkable from having been acquired since the animal was domesticated, and from b ing inherited in differ nt degrees by different breeds, was first learnt, we do not know; but may we not suspect that imitation has l1ad something to do with its acquisition, owing to dogs having long lived in strict association with so loquacious an animal as man? In the course of the foregoing remarks and throughout this volume, I have often felt much difficulty about the proper application of the terms, will, consciousness, and intention. Actions, which were at first voluntary, soon become habitual, and at last hereditary, and may then be perfonned even in opposition to tho will. Although they often reveal the state of the mind, this result was not at first either intended or expected. Even such words as that "certain movements serve as a means of expression" are apt to mi lead, as they imply that this was their primary purpose or object. This, however, seems rarely or never to have been the case; the movements having been at first either of some direct use, or the indirect effect of the excited state of the sensorium. An infant may scream either intentionally or instinctively to show that it wants food; but it has no wish or intention to draw its features into the peculiar form which so plainly indicates misery ; yet some of the most characteristic expressions exhibited by rr1an are derived from the act of screaming, as has been explained. 1 See the interesting facts given by Dr, Bateman on' Aphasia,' 1870,. p. 110. |