The habit gradually
wore away, and now, when she is a little over four years old,
she is never seen to act thus. The father is told that he sometimes
shrugs his shoulders, especially when arguing with any one; but it
is extremely improbable that his daughter should have imitated him at
so early an age; for, as he remarks, she could not possibly have often
seen this gesture in him. Moreover, if the habit had been acquired
through imitation, it is not probable that it would so soon have been
spontaneously discontinued by this child, and, as we shall immediately see,
by a second child, though the father still lived with his family.
This little girl, it may be added, resembles her Parisian grandfather
in countenance to an almost absurd degree. She also presents another and
very curious resemblance to him, namely, by practising a singular trick.
When she impatiently wants something, she holds out her little hand,
and rapidly rubs the thumb against the index and middle finger:
now this same trick was frequently performed under the same circumstances
by her grandfather.
This gentleman's second daughter also shrugged her shoulders before
the age of eighteen months, and afterwards discontinued the habit.
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