Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1910-09-05
HANDS BRAINS SAFETY VALVE.
Sesticulations Aided BY Facial Mus
cles Save Mind Much of Its Labor.

How many persons realize that THEN
lands are the safety valves of theil
)rains? How many understand that !
5 the gesticulation of the hands. aided
degree by the facial muscles. that
elieves the mind of much of its labor?
1t is practically impossible to say q
word or express thought without facial
LAY and accompanying gestures with the
lands. One only needs to turn to the
ATTN races to this perfectly plainly:
What Italian. Frenchman or Spaniard
ould express himself without the play OF
he hands, the expressive movement of
he shoulders: in fact, the movement OF
he entire body? He would find his ideas
'emarkably restricted if he tried to eN-
press himself with spoken words alone
md without the aid of the rest of hi
,odv
A laft-handed man. for example, cannot
'Xpress himself as fiuently if he uses on
his right hand while he talks. A right
landed man is handicapped if he gesticu-
ates only with his left hand in express
ng his thoughts in spoken words. Man $
mind is more than ply steal; his mode OF
xpression is complicated that it in
olives the relation between the brain
md the muscles to give his thoughts full
LAY And it is just this that saves labor
Or that complex organism, the brain.
Without the hands especially man would
wear out his mind in the mere effort o:
alking
, of London, the eminent physiological
psychologist He has come forth with
he absolute statement that IA man,
houshtS are so associated with his ply
ical SenSa tons that the hands and other
mobile parts build up material image
If the thoughts his brain is endeavornR
o express. In "a word, he takes the
round that man, with all his high de
velopment Of language. has never been
able to dispense with signs, and what i
more, he never will.
The words a man speaks are simply ar
bitrary signs or symbols for ideas or ma
-prial tbinoc which b,. visit in
MS imagination. They have no indepen-
lent value. When one pronounceS a
word it promptly rummages about in his
memory vaults until he finds the object
" thought with which it was associated
when he first settled upon it as a-conven-
,ent tag. Having found the associated
idea. an image is formed in his mind,
some material equivalent of the idea
which the word stands for.
This again acts upon one Of the sen
sorry projection spheres the controlling
eenters of the mind. and the idea find
outward expression in some physical
manifestation, usually through some por
ton of the body having to do with the
image which the word called up in the
thinkers mind.
So We gesticulate with our hands; our
heads, our eyes our legs and, indeed
our whole bodies are doing as much to
express the thought which is perhaps be-
ing given out in words at the same time.
The whole body, not the tongue alone.
responds to this impulse of expression.
and the most highly developed parts OF
human body are the most likely medi-
umS for this expression.
The more readily man can talk the
less he feels the need of expressing his
thoughts and emotions in gesticnlation
and motion of the body. 1t is only when
speech fails that he is inclined to resort
to gestures of the more violent and pro-
nounced type to make his purposes un-
derstood.
SavageS dance to express their JOY,
hatred and general activity of mind. Az
a race becomes more loauacious it begins
to despse talking in muscular symbols
and resorts to sounds the only form
betting the dignity Of man.
But never imagine that you have cured
yourself entirely of talking with your
hands, for that is impossible. There will
always be little gestures, little witches.
facial expressions and positions of the
body suggested by mental images which
accompany words like an echo.
Everything is built on our ancestors
experience or our own. The ancestors is
manifested in the brain as an organ and
the instincts, which are hereditary.
Without our own experience, however,
the splendid cerebrum would be but wool
pulp, and the instincts little more. All
this to show how much of thought de-
ponds upon things material. SO iii the
reflex action OF expression We talk