DARWIN. 131 



food being touched by a naked savage, though his hands 

 did not appear dirty." And this illustrates the primary 

 meaning of disgust anything offensive to the taste. 



In later years his own children, and his domestic pets, 

 were incessantly watched, and suitable experiments were 

 devised to bring out the real nature of their expressions. 

 The period at which tears are formed and crying begins, 

 the shape of the mouth in crying, the contraction of the 

 muscles in shouting, the effects of steady gazing at objects, 

 the various stages of smiling, the effects of shyness, shame, 

 and fear, are all set before us, as thus observed. For 

 instance, " I asked one of my boys to shout as loudly as 

 he possibly could, and as soon as he began he firmly 

 contracted his orbicular muscles (surrounding the eyes). 

 I observed this repeatedly, and on asking him why he 

 had every time so firmly closed his eyes, I found that he 

 was quite unaware of the fact : he had acted instinctively 

 or unconsciously." Some of his early observations were 

 afterwards published by Darwin in- Mind, vol. ii., under 

 the title of " A Biographical Sketch of an Infant." 



Here is a carefully-worded and very suggestive experiment 

 on animals : " Many years ago, in the Zoological Gardens, 

 I placed a looking-glass on the floor before two young 

 orangs, who, as far as it was known, had never before 

 seen one. At first they gazed at their own images with 

 the most steady surprise, and often changed their point 

 of view. They then approached close, and protruded 

 their lips towards the image, as if to kiss it, in exactly 

 the same manner as they had previously done towards 

 each other when first placed, a few days before, in the 

 same room. They next made all sorts of grimaces, and 



