266 HELPLESSNESS : Chap. XI 



In this latter case we have a good instance, like those 

 given in a former chapter, of the inheritance of a trick 

 or gesture; for no one, I presume, will attribute to mere 

 coincidence so peculiar a habit as this, which was com- 

 mon to the grandfather and his two grandchildren who 

 had never seen him. 



Considering all the circumstances with reference to 

 these children shrugging their shoulders, it can hardly 

 be doubted that the}' have inherited the habit from their 

 French progenitors, although they have only one quar- 

 ter French blood in their veins, and although their 

 grandfather did not often shrug his shoulders. There 

 is nothing very unusual, though the fact is interesting, 

 in these children having gained by inheritance a habit 

 during early youth, and then discontinuing it; for it is 

 of frequent occurrence with many kinds of animals that 

 certain characters are retained for a period by the young, 

 and are then lost. 



As it appeared to me at one time improbable in a 

 high degree that so complex a gesture as shrugging the 

 shoulders, together with the accompanying movements, 

 should be innate, I was anxious to ascertain whether 

 the blind and deaf Laura Bridgman, who could not have 

 learnt the habit by imitation, practised it. And I have 

 heard, through Dr. Innes, from a lady who has lately 

 had charge of her, that she does shrug her shoulders, turn 

 in her elbows, and raise her eyebrows in the same manner 

 as other people, and under the same circumstances. I 

 was also anxious to learn whether this gesture was prac- 

 tised by the various races of man, especially by those 

 who never have had much intercourse with Europeans. 

 "We shall see that they act in this manner; but it appears 

 that the gesture is sometimes confined to merely raising 

 or shrugging the shoulders, without the other move- 

 ments. 



