SCIENCE. 



471 



peoples constitute together one language, the gesture 

 language of mankind, of which each system is a dialect. 

 The generic conformity is obvious, while the occasion of 

 specific varieties can be readily understood. 



ARCH^EOLOGIC RELATIONS. 



The most interesting light in which Indians, as other 

 lower tribes of men, are to be regarded, is in their pres- 

 ent representation of the stage of evolution once passed 

 through by our ancestors. Their signs, as well as their 

 myths and customs, form a part of the paleontology of 

 humanity. Their picture writings are now translated by 

 working on the hypothesis that their rude form of graphic 

 representation, when at the same time a system of ideo- 

 graphic gesture signs prevailed, would probably have 

 been connected with the latter. Traces of the signs now 

 used by the Indians are also found in the ideographic 

 pictures of the Egyptian, Chinese and Aztec characters. 



HISTORY OF THE GESTURE LANGUAGE. 



From the records of the ancient classic authors, and 

 also from the figures on Etruscan vases and Hercula- 

 nean bronzes and other forms of Archaic art, it is certain 

 that a system of gesture language is of great antiquity. 

 Later, Ouintilian gave elaborate rules for gesture, which 

 are specially noticeable for the significant disposition of 

 the fingers still prevailing in Naples. The ancient and 

 modern pantomimes were discussed, and also the ges- 

 tures of speaking actors in the theatres, the latter being 

 seldom actually significant or self-interpreting even, in 

 the expression of strong emotion. The same scenic ges- 

 ture must apply to many diverse conditions of fact. Its 

 fitness consists in being the same which the hearer of the 

 expository words would spontaneously assume, if yield- 

 ing to the same emotions, and which, therefore, by asso- 

 ciation, tends to induce sympathetic yielding. But the 

 communication of the facts themselves depends upon the 

 words uttered. A true sign language would express the 

 exact circumstances, with or without any exhibition of 

 the general emotion appropriate to them. 



PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF SIGN LANGUAGE. 



This was shown to be in successful use in cases cited 

 by travelers skilled in it, and its powers were compared 

 with those of speech. It finds actually in nature an im- 

 age by which any person can express his thoughts and 

 wishes on the most needful subjects to any other person. 

 Merely emotional sounds may correspond with merely 

 emotional gestures, but whether with or without them 

 would be useless for the explicit communication of facts 

 and opinions of which signs themselves are capable. 

 Notwithstanding frequent denials, they are able to ex- 

 press abstract ideas. The rapidity of their communica- 

 tion is very great, and can approach to that of thought. 

 Oral speech is now conventional, and with the similar de- 

 velopment of sign language, conventional expressions 

 could be made with hands and body more quickly than 

 with the vocal organs, because more organs could be 

 worked at once. 



But such rapidity is only obtained by a system of pre- 

 concerted abbreviations and by the adoption of absolute 

 forms, thus sacrificing self-interpretation and natural- 

 ness, as has been the case with all oral languages in the 

 degree of their copiousness and precision. 



RELATIONS IN PHILOLOGY. 



Signs often gave to spoken words their first signifi- 

 cance, and many primordial roots of language are lound 

 in bodily actions. Examples are given of English, In- 

 dian, Greek and Latin words in connection with gesture 

 signs for the same meaning, and the structure of the 

 sign-language was compared with the tongues of this 

 continent, with reference also to old Asiatic and African 



languages, showing similar operations of conditions in 

 the same psychologic horizon. 



ORIGIN OF SPEECH. 



It is necessary to be free from the vague popular im- 

 pression that some oral language of the general character 

 of that now used by man is "natural " to man. There 

 is no more necessary connection between ideas and 

 sounds, the mere signs of words that strike the ear, than 

 there is between the same ideas and signs for them which 

 are addressed only to the eye. Early concepts of 

 thought were of a direct and material character. This 

 is shown by what has been ascertained of the radicals of 

 language, and there does not seem to be any difficulty in 

 expressing by gesture all that could have been expressed 

 by those radicals. 



CONCLUSIONS. 



It may be conceded that after man had all his present 

 faculties, he did not choose between the adoption of voice 

 and gesture, and never with those faculties, was in a state 

 where the one was used, to the absolute exclusion of 

 the other. The epoch, however, to which our specu- 

 lations relate is that in which he had not reached the 

 present symmetric development of his intellect and ot his 

 bodily organs, and the inquiry is : Which mode of com- 

 munication was earliest adopted to his single wants and 

 informed intelligence? With the voice he could imitate 

 distinctively but few sounds of nature, while with gesture 

 he could exhibit actions, motions, positions, forms, dimen- 

 sions, directions and distances, with their derivations and 

 analogues. It would seem from this unequal division of 

 capacity that oral speech remained rudimentary long 

 after gesture had become an efficient mode of communi- 

 cation. With due allowance for all purely imitative 

 sounds, and for the spontaneous action of vocal organs 

 under excitement, it appears that the connection between 

 ideas and words is only to be explained by a compact 

 between speaker and hearer which supposes the exist- 

 ence of a prior mode of communication. This was prob- 

 ably by gesture. At least we may accept it as a clew lead- 

 ing out of the labyrinth of philological confusion, and 

 regulating the immemorial quest of man's primitive 

 speech. 



TRICHINAE CYSTS. 



The mode of formation of the cyst of trichina has been 

 studied by M. Chatin and described in a communication to 

 the Academie de Sciences. It was formerly said to be 

 formed partly from the contractile tissue, and partly by a 

 secretion from the nematoid, but this opinion was based 

 only on some apparent differences in the thickness or aspect 

 of the cyst wall, and not on any careful study of its forma- 

 tion, which necessitates the examination of animals dying 

 or killed in different states of the affection. When it ar- 

 rives in the muscles the worm forms adhesions with the in- 

 terfascicular tissue in which rapid changes occur. The 

 elements increase in size, and during the growth of the pro- 

 toplasm it assumes the appearance of an amorphous mass, 

 in which, however, nuclei and vacuoles can be seen, which 

 seem to indicate that the mass consists really of aggregated 

 cells. By the growth of this the primitive fibres are com- 

 pressed. In the new protoplasm tine proteoid granulations 

 are first observed, and then other granulations which present 

 all the reactions of glycogen. Then follow important 

 changes in the periphery of the granular mass, containing 

 the trichina, now curled up in the interior; the outer sur- 

 face becomes distinctly thickened and indurated, and may 

 then become lamellated or present granulations or folds. 

 The sarcolemma takes no part in the formation of the cyst 

 except occasionally furnishing it with a purely adventitious 

 layer. Moreover, when the nematoid contracts its first ad- 

 hesions to sarcolemma, and not to the interfascicular tissue, 

 it rapidly dies without determining a new formation. 



