ressive movements (of the coarser sort) to be noted in nearly
every race and people show a great, though by no means complete,
similarity. The similarity is most pronounced in the shaking of the
head to signify negation and nodding to denote affirmation. It will
be noted that the former is essentially of the nature of a turning
toward, and the latter a turning away.[8] These same movements have
been reported in the case of the blind and deaf Laura Bridgman,[9]
and we have been explicitly assured that they were a spontaneous
development, and not acquired by imitation. For it is by imitation
and never before the completion of the first year, that our children
acquire these movements. On account of his unreliability, we can put
but little stock in the statement of Garner,[10] a writer on the
speech of monkeys, that these same gestures have been observed in
the case of those animals. My experiments show that the same
movements, greatly diminished in scope, as a rule accompany the mere
thought of "yes," "no," etc. I cannot, however, regard the assertion
as an established fact that every thought process whatsoever is
connected with some form of muscular movement, as has been
generalized by the French physiologist Fere,[11] and the American
psychologist Wm. James.[12]]

[Footnote O: The productions of mind-readers, so-called, also, are
based upon the perception of involuntary movements, insofar as they
are not based upon pre-arranged schemes and trickery. But there we
have to do principally with tactual perception, since the reader
touches the hand of the subject and is guided by its tremor. Some of
the expert mind-readers, however, conduct tests without touching the
subject. They depend chiefly upon auditory impressions: the sound of
footsteps,[13] involuntary whisperings[14] and the changes in the
subject's respiration[15] and the murmuring of the spectators. To a
less degree visual signs also are involved: posture and facial
expression of the subject, and movements of eyes and lips.[16] Even
the heat radiating from the person's body is supposed to have some
influence.[17] And my own experience has taught me that surprising
results may be obtained by the utilization of the movements
described in the preceding chapter.

It may be that these truly microscopic movements also play some part