81 



She replied, Quel age avez-vous?^^ I then said to her iu 

 English, "You are a bad woman/' She instantly replied, "You 

 are a bad -woman/'' I said, Sprechen sie Deutsch ? " She 

 retorted, " Sprechen sie Deutsch?" In the words that she thus 

 echoed, her articulation was distinct, although the foreign 

 phrases were not repeated by her in quite so intelligible a 

 manner as the French. Not only did this woman echo all that 

 was said, but she imitated every gesture of those around her. 

 One of the pupils made a grimace ; she instantly distorted her 

 facial lineaments in precisely the same manner. Another pupil 

 made the peculiar defiant action, common in schoolboys, of 

 putting the thumb to the nose and extending all the fingers, 

 called in French, pied de nez. The patient instantly imitated 

 this elegant performance. Just as we were leaving her bedside, 

 a patient in an adjoining bed coughed ; the cough was instantly 

 imitated by this human parrot ! In fact, this singular old 

 woman repeated everything that was said to her, whether in an 

 interrogative form or not ; and she imitated every act that was 

 done before her, and that with the most extraordinary exactitude 

 and precision. 



I have mentioned this case to show that the faculty of imita- 

 tion seems to be independent of that of speech. The parrot 

 may be taught automatically to do, in an imperfect degree, 

 what this old woman did, but that does not imply the possession 

 of language. 



I would ask of those gentlemen who attach so much import- 

 ance to pantomimic expression, and to the power of imitation 

 possessed by certain animals, why it is that, under the influence 

 of domestication, no monkey or parrot has ever evolved for 

 itself an articulate language ? The parrot and the monkey 

 probably possessed the same power of imitation 3,000 years ago, 

 and yet we see no probability of its gradual development into 

 a more decided form of expression. I believe with Max 

 Miiller, that " speech is the one great barrier between the brute 

 and man, and that no process of natural selection will ever distil 

 significant words out of the notes of birds or the cries of beasts. 

 Language is our Rubicon, and no brute will dare to pass it.*' 



The Seat of Speech. 



Having defined what is meant by the faculty of language, 

 I now proceed to review very briefly the various theories which 

 have been from time to time promulgated as to the seat of 

 Articulate Language ; but before doing this, it is imperative 

 that I should trouble you with a few anatomical details, for 

 the better understanding of my subject, as I am justified in 



