2T0 THE ASCENT OF MAN 



it instruction in the latter but none in the former, 

 from the time when it begins risu cognoscere 

 matrem. It learns words only as they are taught, 

 and learns them through the medium of signs 

 which are not expressly taught. Long after famili- 

 arity with speech it consults the gestures and 

 facial expressions of its parents and nurses, as if 

 seeking them to translate or explain their words. 

 These facts are important in reference to the 

 biologic law that the order of development of the 

 individual is the same as that of the species. . . . 

 The insane understand and obey gestures when 

 they have no knowledge whatever of words. It 

 is also found that semi-idiotic children who cannot 

 be taught more than the merest rudiment of 

 speech can receive a considerable amount of infor- 

 mation through signs, and can express themselves 

 by them. Sufferers from aphasia continue to use 

 appropriate gestures. A stammerer, too, works his 

 arms and features as if determined to get his 

 thoughts out, in a manner not only suggestive of 

 the physical struggle, but of the use of gesture as 

 a hereditary expedient."^ 



The survival both of gesture and intonation in 

 modern adult speech, and especially the uncon- 



^ First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology^ Washing- 

 ton, 1 88 1. 



