LAUGHTER AND WEEPING. 317 



certain monkeys and apes when pleased (Buckland, Dar- 

 win, Pierquin). The laughter of certain apes is said to 

 be analogous to man's own, in that it is noisy and ex- 

 pansive or hilarious. So close indeed is the resemblance 

 or analogy that the grave Turks compare laughing Western 

 Europeans to apes (Houzeau). A chimpanzee at the London 

 Zoological Gardens can be made by his keeper to laugh 

 when pleased or caressed (' Graphic ') . 



It is obvious that in such cases laughter proceeds from, 

 or is the expression of, a considerable variety of feelings, 

 bodily as well as mental, for tickling seems as capable of 

 producing certain kinds or equivalents of laughter in other 

 animals as in man ; while among mental states productive 

 of it are to be mentioned 



1 . A sense of fun or humour. 



2. Perception of the absurd, ridiculous, ludicrous, odd, or 

 droll. 



3. Pleasure or satisfaction. 



4. Exultation. 



5. Derision. V ^ 



6. Joy, especially when sudden and excessive. 



It must here be remembered that laughter, though 

 usually in man an expression of pleasure or of pleasurable 

 emotions, is not so always or necessarily. When it is pro- 

 duced, for instance, by tickling, it is a purely reflex physical 

 act, and, so far from being associated with pleasant feelings, 

 there may be ' intense pain so great, indeed, as to excite a 

 sense of impending dissolution' (Burton). The same is 

 probably the case in other animals ; so that we ought to be 

 careful in our interpretation of the nature and causes in 

 them of laughter or laughter-like sounds. 



ISTor does tickling always produce the same kind of 

 results in other animals as in man ; for White tells us that 

 this sort of touch begets ' franticness ' not laughter or 

 anything resembling it in the horse. 



Not only, then, do certain animals laugh, but they are 

 actuated by the ideas and emotions which in man give rise 

 to laughter. In particular many of them have a keen sense 

 of fun or humour, to which they give expression in a great 



