It is perhaps worth consideration whether movements at first used
only by one or a few individuals to express a certain state
of mind may not sometimes have spread to others, and ultimately
have become universal, through the power of conscious and
unconscious imitation. That there exists in man a strong tendency
to imitation, independently of the conscious will, is certain.
This is exhibited in the most extraordinary manner in certain
brain diseases, especially at the commencement of inflammatory
softening of the brain, and has been called the "echo sign."
Patients thus affected imitate, without understanding every
absurd gesture which is made, and every word which is uttered
near them, even in a foreign language.[1] In the case of animals,
the jackal and wolf have learnt under confinement to imitate
the barking of the dog. How the barking of the dog, which serves
to express various emotions and desires, and which is so remarkable
from having been acquired since the animal was domesticated,
and from being inherited in different degrees by different breeds,
was first learnt we do not know; but may we not suspect
that imitation has had something to do with its acquisition,
owing to dogs having long lived in strict association with so
loquacious an animal as man?
[1] See the interesting facts given by Dr.
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