130 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



beginning, the suggestion, in lower animals. Indeed, man has been described as 

 "the only animal that laughs," for he alone gives the movement full play. So with 

 frowning, expression with the eye, and other facial expressive movements which are 

 undeveloped in lower forms, but have their origin there. 



Then again, the higher grades of expression, those expressions of the higher emo- 

 tions and intellectual processes, must have arisen after the emergence of man from 

 the animal stage, as the animals furnish us few suggestions of them, or of the prob- 

 able source of their origin, or path of development. Such expressions are the hu- 

 man part of the face — that which lifts it beyond and sets it apart from the animals 

 below it. Under this head come the finer expressions of the mouth and face, which 

 accompany that highest intellectual accomplishment, intelligible speech. Man does 

 not indulge in the" coarse movements of the month, as excessive pouting or strong 

 retraction of the lips, showing the teeth, etc. (except when under very strong feel- 

 ing, or as children, who employ such extreme actions), but the mouth is more under 

 restraint, and expresses the finer grades of feelings and emotions which have come 

 into existence since man became a different being, and to which the lower animals 

 are strangers. The acquisition and development of articulate speech has led to the 

 modification of some animal expressions and the refinement of others, and the crea- 

 tion of still others entirely new. But the differentiation of these is impossible in the 

 present state of imperfect data and absence of close observation. The study of com- 

 parative expression opens up a field that is very inviting and would be fruitful of 

 results to the careful observer. 



But, of the philosophy of expression, Mr. Geo. Romanes says that "in animals as 

 in man there is obviously a 'logic of feelings' that is translated into a "logic of 

 signs.' This logic of signs, in its higher development, has exclusive reference to the 

 representative faculties, and is first evoked by those exigencies of life which ren- 

 dered necessary the communication of ideas. The germ of the sign-making faculty 

 occurs among animals as far down as the ant, and is highly developed among the 

 higher vertebrates. Pointer dogs make signs, terriers 'beg' for food, and the cat, 

 dog, horse and other animals make signs. The animal is capable of converting the 

 logic of feelings into the logic of signs for the purpose of communication, and it is 

 a sign language as much as that of the deaf-mute or savages." From these begin- 

 nings the principle of communication arose, signs and gesture language were devel- 

 oped, and facial expression, as an auxiliary of gesture language, was evolved. 



Facial expression is, then, in its last analysis, sign language. It belongs to the 

 realm of "gesture speech" — communication by gestures of the features. As Mr. 

 Garrick Mallery says, in his contributions to the study of sign language ( Report of 

 Bureau of Ethnology, Vol. I), " Gesture speech is divided into corporeal motion and 

 facial expression. ... A play of features, whether instinctive or voluntary, ac- 

 centuates and qualifies all motions intended to serve as signs, and strong instinc- 

 tive facial expression is generally accompanied by action of the body or some of its 

 members. But, so far as distinction can be made, expressions of the features are 

 the result of emotional and corporeal gestures of intellectual actions. The former 

 in general and the small number of the latter that are distinctly emotional are 

 nearly identical among men, for physiological causes which do not affect with the 

 same similarity the processes of thought. The large number of corporeal gestures 

 expressing intellectual operations require and admit of more variety and conven- 

 tionality. . . . Sign language necessarily includes and presupposes facial ex- 

 pression when the emotions are in question. . . . The earliest gestures were 

 doubtless instinctive and generally emotional, preceding pictorial, metamorphio 

 and conventional gestures, which in turn preceded articulate speech, according to 

 Darwin. . . . While it appears that the expressions of the features are not con- 



