[4] Mr. Bain (`The Emotions and the Will,' 1865, p. 247) has a long
and interesting discussion on the Ludicrous. The quotation above
given about the laughter of the gods is taken from this work.
See, also, Mandeville, `The Fable of the Bees,' vol. ii. p. 168.
[5] `The Physiology of Laughter,' Essays, Second Series, 1863, p. 114.
The imagination is sometimes said to be tickled by a ludicrous idea;
and this so-called tickling of the mind is curiously analogous with
that of the body. Every one knows how immoderately children laugh,
and how their whole bodies are convulsed when they are tickled.
The anthropoid apes, as we have seen, likewise utter a reiterated sound,
corresponding with our laughter, when they are tickled, especially under
the armpits. I touched with a bit of paper the sole of the foot of one
of my infants, when only seven days old, and it was suddenly jerked
away and the toes curled about, as in an older child. Such movements,
as well as laughter from being tickled, are manifestly reflex actions;
and this is likewise shown by the minute unstriped muscles, which serve
to erect the separate hairs on the body, contracting near a tickled
surface.
Pages:
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298