666 Sir James Crichton-Browne [May 27, 



relaxation ; all are equally applicable to physical and to mental 

 states, and the bond linking these words seems to be universal and 

 necessary, for it is to be found in all languages. Primarily physical 

 in their application, they have, in the course of evolution, had meta- 

 physical and metaphoric meanings attached to them. 



But emotions to which such words as I have been referring to 

 have application, are indicated by attitudes, gestures, and movements 

 of the body expressed by the same words. The workings of the 

 feelings are expressed by attitudes, gestures, and movements of 

 the body correlative with them, and we have symbolism in expres- 

 sion. In expressing superiority or authority, the body is drawn up ; 

 in expressing inferiority or humility, it is bent down. In expressing 

 liking or attraction, we bend the body forward to be near that which 

 we like ; in expressing dislike, or repulsion, we draw the body back- 

 ward, as if to be far away from that which we dislike ; and these 

 movements are made not from any notion of achieving a purpose, still 

 less from an inherited habit founded on their utility to real or 

 supposed ancestors, but simply from the close connection subsisting 

 between movements towards an object and mental attraction, or 

 between movement away from an object and a feeling of repulsion. 



We have slight movements of the arms to express the hugging of 

 an idea to the bosom, when nothing but what is thoroughly impersonal 

 is thought of ; and we have a sweep downwards and backwards of the 

 arm wiSi the palm of the hand turned away from the body ; andno 

 gesture can more thoroughly express the putting away of something 

 vile, and this gesture is applied to the intangible and invisible ; by 

 it the cleric puts away the false doctrine, and the fastidious brands 

 a notion as vulgar. And in the direction of the eyes we see the 

 appropriate supplement of gesture in expression. An erect carriage 

 may be given to the body by a sense of authority, by pride, by conceit, 

 by scorn, by reproach, and by ennobling thought, and it is really the 

 direction of the eyes that best distinguishes these. 



I have said enough, perhaps, to illustrate the correlations of move- 

 ments and positions with ideas, and I need only add that this corre- 

 lation is seen elsewhere in nature besides in the face of man. In the 

 vegetable kingdom the flower holds the place of honour ; in vertebrate 

 animals the nervous system, which with the exception of the supra- 

 cesophageal ganglion, has been inferior, in the articulate becomes 

 superior, while in man, the brain becomes superior in every sense. 



I have tried to demonstrate that the immediate explanation of 

 emotional expression is to be found in the structure of the nervous 

 system, and that its origin must be sought in the conditions that have 

 determined the constitution and evolution of the brain. In doing so, 

 I have had to consider the emotions solely on their cerebral side, and 

 in connection with their material manifestations, but I would now 

 add that whatever advance in this direction modern research may 

 have secured, we are not one hair's breadth nearer comprehending the 

 real relation between emotional and bodily states. Why emotion or 



