STUDY OF POSTURES. 57 



heavy, irregular, impetuous, or hesitating; it may 

 be brisk, free, unrestrained, easy, and mobile. 



A posture of the body is the result of movement. 

 The term "posture" indicates the relative position of 

 the several members of the body with regard to one 

 another, or the relative position of the individual 

 parts of a member. When I began to make a definite 

 clinical study of expression, in the sense in which 

 the subject is treated in this work, I frequently 

 looked at my patients after diagnosis had been 

 made, to observe if there were any outward ex- 

 pressions of their organic or nerve-condition. My 

 attention was soon attracted to the frequence of 

 certain postures of the body indicative of conditions 

 of the nerve-system. In these early studies it was 

 found more easy to give an accurate description of 

 a posture than of a movement, because a posture is a 

 condition of quiescence, a movement is of temporary 

 duration. A posture is described when we have 

 given an anatomical description of it, and the 

 matter is more simple to deal with than a move- 

 ment. In works of art, both painting and sculpture, 

 it is very largely by the posture of the body that 

 we judge of the condition of the man or animal 

 represented. These matters are fully considered in 

 chaps, viii., ix., and x. Now, a posture, while it is 

 maintained, implies absence of movement in the 

 part. When we see a man's fist clenched in passion, 

 we may study the posture of that hand, and, as long 

 as it is maintained in that posture without altera- 

 tion, there is no movement of the parts of the hand. 

 A posture is the result of the last movement, and it 



