136 MAN --AN ADAPTIVE MECHANISM 



ing her cubs in the quiet shelter of her lair. (Fig. 16.) 

 Contrast the contortion of the faces of the athletes 

 with the composure of the beautiful woman posing 

 for her portrait, and activated, we may believe, by 

 no more stimulating concept than that of satisfaction 

 with her beauty. (Fig. 17.) Contrast, as has Dar- 

 win, the rigidly hostile attitude of the dog approaching 

 a stranger or an enemy with the fawning attitude of the 

 same dog approaching its beloved master. Contrast 

 these expressions of emotion and lack of emotion and 

 see if they do not strongly suggest that emotion is as 

 definitely a form of muscular activation as are the acts 

 of escape, of seizure or of embrace. 



Further striking evidence of the truth of this assump- 

 tion is afforded by the fact that fear is experienced 

 only by animals which depend for self-defense and 

 species-preservation upon a swift locomotor reaction. 

 The skunk, for example, whose chief means of protec- 

 tion is its odor ; the porcupine, defended by its quills ; 

 the snake which repels its enemies by its venom ; the 

 turtle which is securely incased in its shell ; the lion 

 and the elephant secure in their superior strength - 

 exhibit little if any fear. On the other hand, the rabbit, 

 the bird, the deer, the horse, the antelope, the monkey 

 and man species which have ever had to struggle for 

 existence against stronger or swifter enemies these 

 are the animals which preeminently exhibit fear and 

 an irrepressible desire to flee from danger. 



Physiological Phenomena of Emotion 



The physiological phenomena exhibited by the organ- 

 ism stimulated to supreme physical exertion through a 



