July 5, 1900] 



NATURE 



227 



a series of school-children and ask them to hold their 

 hands out straight. The failure of the majority of them 

 to put out the fingers without some indication of the 

 bough -grasping curvature will be very interesting. In 

 some cases, especially among the younger children, the 

 inward curve of the fingers will be very noticeable ; and 

 their inability to fully extend the fingers will be marked. 

 A record of this inward curvature of the fingers may be 

 obtained by photographing the extended hands when 

 held against a dark background. 



Even better evidence of the inherited bough-grasping 

 instinct is afiforded in Fig. 2. The child, about twelve 

 months old, has picked up a flower-pot, and it has done 

 so by dabbing the hand down upon it in the manner 

 in which a monkey would catch at a branch. It has not 

 made use of the thumb as an adult would do ; but it has 

 caught the rim of the flower-pot between the fingers and 

 the palm of the hand, and in that manner has raised it 

 up to its mouth. The sympathetic grasping attitude of 

 the other hand may not be without significance ; for 

 although an arboreal animal like a monkey can sustain 

 its weight by one hand, yet there would generally be a 

 tendency to grasp with both hands at the same time in 

 order to relieve the one arm. of all the weight. 



Fig. 2. — Child grasping a flower-pot. 



A sympathetic action of this kind is very noticeable 

 among children in regard to the use of the legs, and 

 similarly it may be referred to the habits of arboreal 

 ancestors. If a young child be put to hang on to a rope, 

 which it will do very well long before it can support its 

 weight in the ordinary human manner on its hind legs, or 

 if it be merely lifted up by the hands, it will at once 

 show a disposition to swing up its legs as if to catch at 

 something. And this would be very natural in an 

 arboreal quadruped. .AlS soon as it grasped a bough with 

 its arms, it would swing the legs up in order to grasp 

 with the hind hands (the feet) either another bough, or 

 in many cases the tree-trunk. 



The inherited effects of grasping tree-trunks, or limbs 

 with the hind hands are particularly marked in a young 

 child. There is first of all, common to most babies, 

 more or less of the bow-legged character which such 

 trunk grasping would produce in arboreal animals. And 

 then if a quite young child be held up so that its feet 

 touch the ground, it will be seen that the outer portions 

 of the feet rest on the ground, while the soles of the feet 

 are not in position for being put flat, but are more or less 

 opposed to one another in the manner suitable for trunk- 

 ,^ rasping. Often, too, when the baby is lying down, the 

 Kreat flexibility of the ankle joint may be noticed ; and 

 the child will be seen to do, without an effort, what it 

 would be very difficult for an adult to accomplish— it will, 

 NO. I 60 I, VOL. 62] 



\vitl\out bending the knees, bring the soles of the feet 

 flat, opposite to one another. It is quite a common^ 

 thing for a baby to turn the sole of its foot so that across 

 the sole is in a straight Ime with the inside of the leg. 



One habit after another, one action after another whicb 

 a child performs may be seen to be quite out of keeping 

 with what may be called human instincts, but exactly ir^ 

 accordance with the habits of arboreal animals. And 

 so there is an accumulation of evidence, on the ontogeny 

 repeating phylogeny principle, that the human ancestors 

 were monkey-like animals, arboreal in their habits. One 

 of the first things that the human baby does is to climb, 

 and to climb persistently. It will climb its crib, or a 

 footstool, or the fender, and particularly the stairs. Given 

 a fair chance, and it will develop a perfect mania for 

 stair-climbing and a bump of locality as regards the 

 position of the stairs in the household geography — if such 

 a bull may be permitted. Then it will make for the 

 stairs on all occasions, to climb with crows of pleasure. 

 It may experience tumbles, when it will lie and howl, not 

 so much on account of injury as at the unexpectedness- 

 of the catastrophe. But on recovering it will at once 

 make for the stairs again, showing how strongly the 

 climbing instinct is developed. 



. And the climbing instinct lasts till later in life. Youngr 

 boys, and girls too, must climb. The stairs themselves 

 have become too small for their efforts then, but the 

 bannisters remain, and they must climb up outside these, 

 and hang on from various points which give any facility 

 for arm exercise. The disposition for arm gymnastics is 

 very marked in children who are not repressed in the 

 unnecessary conventional manner. And it is a pity that 

 it does not receive more systematic encouragement, 

 because it would be beneficial for chest expansion in^ 

 growing children. As matters stand now such exercise 

 as is permitted favours leg development only, while all 

 school work promotes contracted chests and rounded 

 backs— at any rate with the girls. Boys are rather more 

 fortunate. They are not troubled by an ever-rampant 

 Mrs. Grundy preaching lessons on deportment. They- 

 retain the monkey habits of tree-climbing and bird- 

 nesting. If any one reflects how important a prize to a 

 hungry monkey a bird's nest of eggs must be, then he 

 will understand how the inherited instinct can be so- 

 strongly developed among boys. 



However, I am wandering somewhat from the human 

 baby, and I will return thereto by asking consideration 

 for what should be commonly observed in any family, a 

 child with a pleased expression. There is one point in 

 such expression which has not received due considera- 

 tion, namely, the raising of lumps of flesh each side of the 

 nose as an indication of pleasure. Accompanying this, 

 though difficult to bring out in a photograph, may be 

 seen small furrows, both in children and adults, running 

 from the eyes somewhat obliquely towards the nose. 

 What these characters indicate may be learnt from the 

 male mandril, whose face, particularly in the breeding 

 season, shows coloured fleshy prominences each side of 

 the nose with conspicuous furrows and ridges. In the 

 male mandril these characters have been developed, 

 because bemg an unmistakable sign of sexual ardour 

 they gave the female particular evidence of sexual feel- 

 ings. Thus such characters would come to be recognised 

 as habitually symptomatic of pleasurable feelings. Find- 

 ing similar features in human beings, and particularly iiv 

 children, though not developed in the same degree, we 

 may assume that in our monkey-like ancestors facial 

 characters similiar to those of the mandril were developed, 

 though to a less extent, and that they were symptomatic 

 of pleasure, because connected with the period of court- 

 ship. Then they became conventionalised as pleasurable 

 symptoms. 



Darwin's idea of Antithesis with regard to the expres- 

 sion of emotions does not commend itself. There is not 



