1899 S. S. BUCKMAN — HUMAN BABIES 103 



a. Expressions of Pleasure 



Roughly speaking the muscular movements which 

 make up what are known as expressions of pleasure may 

 be said to have a two-fold origin — (i) they are the move- 

 ment of muscles made in connexion with the satisfaction 

 of the sexual feelings, (2) they are the movements 

 made in connexion with the satisfaction of hunger 

 and thirst. But it may easily be understood that these 

 movements have, in course of time, become conven- 

 tionalized ; that they may have little reference to the 

 present habits of life of a species, but may have been first 

 called into play by very different circumstances of the 

 former life of more or less remote ancestors ; and that 

 the particular movements arising from the sexual and 

 hunger origins would not be kept distinct, but that a 

 movement originally expressive of sexual satisfaction 

 might be used in connexion with pleasure felt in regard to 

 food, and vice versa. 



Thus a cat when stroked elevates the tail, and generally 

 turns the hinder part of its body towards the person who 

 is stroking, an obvious exhibition of sexual feelings ; but 

 these actions have become so habitual as signs of pleasure 

 that it makes just the same movements when called to its 

 food.* So a child, when expressing pleasure at a present 



* The elevation of the tail is noticeable, and the manner in which the cat spins 

 round and round in front of the person carrying a plate of food is due to the instinct which 

 prompts the turning of the hinder part. Among many monkeys this exhibition of the 

 hinder part (an obvious sexually prompted act) is an habitual greeting, and a sign of 

 pleasure (Darwin, " Descent of Man, — Supplemental Note on Sexual Selection.") The 

 same exhibition is a greeting among Man (Batoka Salutation, J. G. Wood, Nat. Hist, of 

 Man, Vol. I., p. 389). It is a sign of pleasure among children forming a particular 

 feature in many games, such as the one with the rhyme about "the dog went to Dover." 

 The habit of bowing, probably, had the same origin, altered in course of time as other 

 habits gave rise to new ideas, and then it was supposed to have another signification. 

 Among certain savages it is etiquette only to speak with the back towards the king ; and 

 then would arise the idea of the impropriety of seeing the face of a king or deity. 

 There are various developments of these customs in connection with worship of deities 

 in manv lands. 



