MALLERY. ] PRIORITY BETWEEN WORDS AND GESTURES. 285 
gladly accepted provisionally as a clue leading out of the labyrinth of 
philologic confusion. 
For the purpose of the present paper there is, however, no need of an 
absolute decision upon the priority between communication of ideas by 
bodily motion and by vocal articulation. It is enough to admit that the 
connection between them was so early and intimate that gestures, in 
the wide sense indicated of presenting ideas under physical forms, 
had a direct formative effect upon many words; that they exhibit the 
earliest condition of the human mind; are traced from the remotest an- 
tiquity among all peoples possessing records; are generally prevalent 
in the savage stage of social evolution; survive agreeably in the scenic 
pantomime, and still adhere to the ordinary speech of civilized man by 
motions of the face, hands, head, and body, often involuntary, often pur- 
posely in illustration or for emphasis. 
It may be unnecessary to explain that none of the signs to be de- 
seribed, even those of present world-wide prevalence, are presented as 
precisely those of primitive man. Signs as well as words, animals, 
and plants have had their growth, development, and change, their births 
and deaths, and their struggle for existence with survival of the fittest. 
It is, however, thought probable from reasons hereinafter mentioned that 
their radicals can be ascertained with more precision than those of 
words. 
HISTORY OF GESTURE LANGUAGE. 
There is ample evidence of record, besides that derived from other 
sources, that the systematicuse of gesture speech was of great antiquity. 
Livy so declares, and Quintilian specifies that the “lex gestus * * * 
ab illis temporibus heroicis orta est”’ Plato classed its practice among 
civil virtues, and Chrysippus gave it place among the proper education 
of freemen. Athenzeus tells that gestures were even reduced to distinet 
classification with appropriate terminology. The classsuited to comedy 
was called Cordax, that to tragedy Eumelia, and that for satire Sicin- 
nis, from the inventor Sicinnus. Bathyllus from these formed a fourth 
class, adapted to pantomime. This system appears to have been par- 
ticularly applicable to theatrical performances. Quintilian, later, gave 
most elaborate rules for gestures in oratory, which are specially notice- 
able from the importance attached to the manner of disposing the 
fingers. He attributed to each particular disposition asignificance or suit- 
ableness which are not now obvious. Some of them are retained by 
modern orators, but without the same, or indeed any, intentional mean- 
ing, and others are wholly disused. 
The value of these digital arrangements is, however, shown by their 
use among the modern Italians, to whom they have directly descended. 
