Of Pathognomics, and of Mimicry or Pantomime.

I have said, that one does not judge as a physiognomist, when he pronounces a judgment on the character of a person, without taking an exact account of the forms of the parts, on which he founds his judgment. If the parts in question are in motion, and if it be the motions which we judge, we pronounce a pathognomic judgment; for the act of judging a person by his gestures, by the whole habit of his body, is pathognomy.

This art is founded in nature herself; for, it is nature that prompts all the gestures, the attitudes, the movements, finally, the whole pantomime, by which men and animals express all their feelings and ideas. Pathognomy has its fixed and immutable laws, whether we apply it to man or to animals, so long as the question relates to the same feelings and the same ideas. Pantomime is the universal language of all nations and of all animals: there is no beast, there is no man, who does not learn it; there is no beast or man, who does not understand it; it accompanies language and strengthens its expressions; it supplies the defects of articulate language; words may be ambiguous, but pantomime never is so.

Who does not recognise by his pantomime, the voluptuary, the bully, the boaster, the vain man, the devotee, &c.? Have men ever been deceived in regard to the expression of anger, despair, jealousy, the desire of vengeance, grief, tenderness, irony, gaitey, confusion, envy, &c.?

There are those, however, who pretend, that the expression of the affections, passions, feelings, ideas, is not subjected to invariable laws; that it is arbitrary, and varies with the man or the animal, that makes use of it.

There is no doubt, that the sentiments and the ideas are modified differently in every animal, that experi

ences them, and that consequently the pantomime of each of these individuals, must be differently modified. Still, in essential points, all human individuals feeling and thinking in the same manner, their pantomime must also be essentially the same. If this pantomime were arbitrary, how would children and even animals understand it?

Another reason again, why the pantomime of the affections, &c. cannot be absolutely uniform in all its details, is, that there is almost always a complication of different affections, and that it is not, far from it, the complication of the same affections, which constantly takes place. Jealousy, for instance, expresses itself very differently, according as it is complicated with anger, with a repressed desire of vengeance, with confusion, pride, grief to see one's self betrayed, contempt, irony, &c. The pantomime must necessarily be complicated with the expression of the different sentiments, ideas, and passions, which affect the individual simultaneously.

What would become of engraving, painting, sculpture, the comic art, eloquence, poetry, if the expression of the sentiments and the ideas were not subjected to immutable laws? What means would they have in their power to paint modesty, prudence, contrition, fear, despair, baseness, remorse, innocence, joy, anger, contempt, pride, meditation, contemplation, devotion, or firmness? How would the eye of the dying gladiator say to us, I die, but I am neither surprised nor grieved. How would Laocoon present to us the image of man, sinking under sufferings without too much weakness? Who could comprehend their language? Would not the expression of love be confounded with that of hatred; the expression of envy, with that of benevolence?

Where, in fine, is the man or the animal, who takes time to deliberate on the manners, in which he would make his feelings and his ideas understood by others? Even at the moment, when the feeling and the ideas

arise, they are written on the exterior in characters discernible by all the world. It is certain, therefore, that the feelings, ideas, affections, passions, are manifested without, by suitable expression according to determinate and invariable laws.

But how happens it that each affection, passion, feeling, and idea, produces a peculiar and proper pantomime? Why does the humble man walk meekly along, with his eyes fixed on the ground, while the proud one struts with expanded chest and head erect? Why does the devotee raise his head forward, and direct his looks and hands toward heaven?

These are bold questions, and the bolder as no one as yet has entertained the idea of seeking the cause of these phenomena. Let us see if organology is capable of throwing any light on these mysteries.

Of the Internal Sources of Imitation in general, and of the Imitation of each Feeling, of each Passion, &c., in particular.

The brain is the source of all the feelings, ideas, affections, and passions; their manifestation, therefore, must depend on the brain and be modified by it. The brain is connected with the instruments of all the senses, and by aid of the spinal marrow, is equally so with the instruments of the voluntary movements. It controls the senses and the muscles, and consequently, the extremities; it puts in action each of the parts; by its activity it determines the movement they must make, the position they must adopt; as soon as it is at rest, the senses, the muscles, the limbs are inactive.

But the different cerebral organs are placed in different regions. The action of the brain, according as such or such an organ is active, must then commence from different regions. Each of the cerebral organs, in a manner peculiar to itself and suitable to its place, brings under its influence the instruments of the senses,

the muscles, the extremities. Each organ, therefore, expresses its action by a peculiar play of pantomime ; consequently this play of pantomime is the peculiar language of the organ in question, and reveals, not only the nature of the feeling, the idea, the affection, the passion, but also the seat of the organ, from which their movements have proceeded.

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Organology may then draw from mimicry two advantages equally valuable: 1. Mimicry may serve to indicate the place of the brain, where the organ which acts in such a particular case is found, and thus prepare for the organologist the way to arrive at proofs, which place beyond doubt, what at first he had only suspected 2. It serves as a confirmation to him by concurring to prove, that the organ, of which he observes the action, is in fact placed where, guided by other facts, he had located it. In treating of the organs in particular, I might have reported in regard to each of them, what has relation to expression. I have not done it, because I thought I could dispense with this redundancy of proof, and I preferred to explain without interruption all that has relation to pathognomics.

The reader is now prepared to divine and to judge the expression of each organ in particular. But, before entering into any detail, I am going to determine the general principles of the external manifestation of the action of the organs.

1st. The organs, which have their seat in the inferior regions of the brain, when they act with energy, carry the head downward, depress and shorten the body.

2d. Those of the organs, which are placed in the superior regions of the brain, during their energetic action, elevate the head and the whole body.

3d. The organs, placed in the superior posterior regions of the brain, depress the head and the whole body backward and downward.

4th. The organs, placed in the inferior anterior regions

of the brain, direct the head and the whole body forward and downward.

5th. The organs, placed in the superior anterior part of the brain, elevate the head and the body and carry them forward.

6th. The organs, placed at the superior posterior part of the brain, elevate the head, the body, and carry them backward.

7th. The organs, placed in the inferior region of the brain, in a perpendicular line with the great occipital opening, depress down perpendicularly the head and the whole body.

8th. The organs, placed in the superior region of the brain, perpendicularly above the great occipital opening, elevate perpendicularly the head and all the body.

9th. When the twin organs of each function act simultaneously, the head and the whole body move symmetrically from above downward, from before backward, &c., according as the organ which acts, is placed in the anterior, posterior, superior, or inferior region of the brain.

10th. When there is only one of the two equal organs, which acts, the head and the body move on the side on which this organ is placed, from above downward, from below upward, from before backward, from behind forward, according as the organ acting is placed in the superior, inferior, anterior, or posterior region of the brain.

11th. When the two double organs act alternately, the head and the body perform alternately the motions belonging to their action, sometimes on one side, sometimes on the other.

12th. When the double organs, having their seat in the perpendicular axis of the brain, act alternately, the head moves on its pivot from right to left, and from left to right, from above downward, and from below upward, according as the acting organ is situated in the superior or the inferior part of the brain.