KNOWLEDGE 



intr.ictible and disobedient. He regards them as evi- 

 dences of epileptiform seizures, with tendency to 

 insanity. The parents are related (cousins, I believe) ; 

 no other family liistory. It seems to me that this is an 

 instance of pure mental atavism— reversion to an ancestral 

 type somewhat resembling that of the monkey, brought 

 about by congenital nervous defect combined with disease. 



In cases of brain-disease where the intelligent use of 

 language is lost or impaired, when words are used in the 

 presence of the patient, they are frequently imitated and 

 repeated by him in a meaningless way. Prof. Behier* 

 had a patient who was born in Italy and had lived in 

 Spain and France ; she thus mastered three languages, 

 but lost the use of Italian and Spanish, and only retained 

 a most limited power over French, in which she could 

 onhj repeat li/ce an ccJio, and without attaching any 

 meaning to them, the words pronoujiced in her hearing. 

 Bateman, the celebrated writer on aphasia, saw in the 

 Salpetriere a woman with whom the tendency to imitate 

 was still stronger ; she reproduced foreign words formerly 

 unknown to her, although not as intelligibly as her native 

 French words. Her articulation was distinct. When a 

 patient in an adjoining bed coughed, she instantly 

 imitated it. She repeated everything that was said to 

 her, whether in an interi-ogative form or not, and imi- 

 tated every act that was done before her with extra- 

 ordinary exactness. A somewhat similar case occurred 

 in Trousseau's clinique in the person of a man named 

 ilarcou, whose stock of words was limited to the 

 emotional expressions, " My faith ! " (Ma foi !) and " Cre 

 nom d'un Canrr ! " When asked what his name and his 

 occupation were, he replied, " My faith ! " On Troussean'.s 

 insisting, he only shook his head with an impatient 

 gesture, exclaiming "Cre nom d'un Coeur." As 

 Trousseau wished to discover how many words he could 

 use, he asked, "Are yoii from the Haute-Loire ? " 

 " Haute-Loire ! " echoed the patient. "Tour pro- 

 fession?" "Haute-Loire." "But your name is 

 Marcou?" "Yes." "Tou are sure it is Marcou ? " 

 " Yes." " What department do you come from ? " 

 " Marcou." "N'o; that's j'ourname." With an impatient 

 gesture he exclaimed again, " Cre nom d'un Coeur." 



As we descend in the .scale of human intellect we find 

 that the tendency to imitate has increased power. We 

 all experience this tendency ourselves when not intel- 

 lectually active, as when a cough, a sneeze, or a vawn 

 goes all round a church, _ lecture-hall, or concert-room ; f 

 but in nervous disease and among peoples of a low class 

 of intellect, such as savages or uncultivated peasants, it 

 is very much more marked. Among the lower classes of 

 various nations this mental phase is seen in exaggerated 

 form. The "Jumpers" of America will obey any order, 

 however absurd, and repeat woi-ds in languages of which 

 they are entirely ignorant. Among the Russians it 

 assumes the proportions of a nervous disease, and is 

 called "Miryachit." The patient has no power to resist 

 imitating actions which he sees or hears performed 

 by others, such as clapping the hands, shouting, 

 or even stumbling and falling. In his " Jom-ney 

 to the Amur," Dr. Meak says that it is not unusual 



* " Gaz. de Hopitaux," May 16, 1867. 

 f " Laughter is catching,'' as we all know. As a rule, if an actor 

 on the stage laughs, the whole audience involuntarily copies him, 

 whether the joke is generally uncler.stood or not. A short time back 

 I went to German Reed's, aiid saw " Hobbies," a piece in which one 

 of the actors becomes possessed of a " laughing gas '' machine, 

 which makes him go into ecstasies of laughter ; the audience was 

 convulsed, and although I was anxious to watch this phenon 

 in the interests of psychology, it was perfectly impossible for : 

 withstand the infection, as it may well be called. 



for the .\l::i '.. I . ■ Iv of this 



kind, .vlnr 'the wild 



people lif Sii :i,> settled 



there. It lo » . :. .._ ;..^ i .^kutes and 



Arguriau Cossacks ; ihobc bullLrmg from it tmder the 

 influence of fear or consternation unconsciously imitate 

 whatever passes before them. I can only lock upon this 



SO-eilli 1 'li-r -, ;,- ;; -_\ ; , ) I , 1 ; 1 M' <\i'l. .(.- nf nCrVOUS 



abi.i 



ed 



' !"■ 



of which she fears she is incapable. 



Mr. Jagor observes in his " Travels in the Philipines,"* 



that this disease of nervoiis mimicry is well-known in 



these islfii.ls imh'v the iinme ..f ^L:l■■.^rnl;. and in Java 



undi-i-il,. ; .IS- -f /, .-' ' : '(■':-. -...'.A ]:■■ T. I'- l,r,w he and 



diti'i, :' : ]■' !■ < ' I ■A.-M.iM \\li(> i!i. ! i:- i'.i ihc highway, 



:l 1h 



i.l^i- 



resistible 



imli-u::: :: n , A' ■ I ;[.-. u],n ,,lmsed liur intinuity." 

 Dr. Xia:.. wriiiiu' .11 t!;, suiiK. sul.ject, says that what- 

 ever atiiiu.le is assuiiird tin se iuilividuals must adopt the 

 same. If ili. v un- cari'x iiiLr iiuyiliing and see another 

 pers' II ■\\'"<- : >i -..i;. '. , .1. v 1. ..-nfs their burden, however 

 \n; <■': ally carried, even if it is 



;i \~>'. • V a well-loved infant. He 



counuiii -, ■ I ' ill wislied to extract a tooth 



from a young -svumaii tue .suijject of ' lata,' but no coaxing- 

 could avail to induce her to ojieii her mouth. At 

 last I took a chair, and she did likewise, I moved 

 it gradually towards her in front, and she as gradually 

 approached me. I then vawued very widelv ; she 

 followed .suit. I tlun .shut niv eves verv tiirht," « hicb 

 action slie strictly imitated." Quickly " jumping up I 

 clapped on the forceps, and had the tuoth out before 

 she had time to resist further." Some years after this 

 girl came to England as a servant, and one day, while 

 waiting at table, her mistress wished to exhibit her 

 peculiarity to some friends, and seizing a large 

 French plum pretended to swallow it. " The woman 

 instantly made a dash at the dish, thrust a plum in her 

 mouth, and, after much choking and semi-asphyxia, suc- 

 ceeded in swallowing it; but the situation was such that 

 her mistress did not repeat the expci-inuut."" 



It is well known that healtliy clnl'lrcn will often 

 acquire chorea solely from seeing otlurs afflicted with 

 the disease ; but one of the most forcible illustrations I 

 can imagine of the power of imitation is that afforded by 

 a report of the Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind, in 

 which Dr. Howe observes that a "blind child during the 

 vacation got St. Vitus' dance, and that when the school 

 reassembled, the disease spread so rapidly among the 

 children that, in order to arrest it, they had to be 

 separated and sent home again. The choreic movements 

 must have been imitated wholly through touch. 



Physiological action increased beyond the normal 

 intensity becomes pathological action, and thus we see 

 that imitation, which, as we descend in the scale of 

 human intelligence, becomes more and more a physio- 

 logical unit of the constitution, mr.y pass with great 

 facility into a well-marked disease. 



* p. 1^3. 



