That it is innate or natural may be inferred from the fact
that Laura Bridgman, when amazed, "spreads her arms and turns
her hands with extended fingers upwards;"[11] nor is it likely,
considering that the feeling of surprise is generally a brief one,
that she should have learnt this gesture through her keen
sense of touch.
Huschke describes[12] a somewhat different yet allied gesture, which he says
is exhibited by persons when astonished. They hold themselves erect,
with the features as before described, but with the straightened arms
extended backwards--the stretched fingers being separated from each other.
I have never myself seen this gesture; but Huschke is probably correct;
for a friend asked another man how he would express great astonishment,
and he at once threw himself into this attitude.
These gestures are, I believe, explicable on the principle of antithesis.
We have seen that an indignant man holds his head erect, squares his
shoulders, turns out his elbows, often clenches his fist, frowns, and closes
his mouth; whilst the attitude of a helpless man is in every one of
these details the reverse. Now, a man in an ordinary frame of mind,
doing nothing and thinking of nothing in particular, usually keeps his
two arms suspended laxly by his sides, with his hands somewhat flexed,
and the fingers near together.
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