one common parent language is more difficult than was supposed by
mediæval ignorance.

The discussion is now, however, varied by the suggested possibility
that man at some time may have existed without any oral language. It
is conceded by some writers that mental images or representations can
be formed without any connection with sound, and may at least serve
for thought, though not for expression. It is certain that concepts,
however formed, can be expressed by other means than sound. One mode
of this expression is by gesture, and there is less reason to believe
that gestures commenced as the interpretation of, or substitute for
words than that the latter originated in, and served to translate
gestures. Many arguments have been advanced to prove that gesture
language preceded articulate speech and formed the earliest attempt
at communication, resulting from the interacting subjective and
objective conditions to which primitive man was exposed. Some of the
facts on which deductions have been based, made in accordance with
well-established modes of scientific research from study of the lower
animals, children, idiots, the lower types of mankind, and deaf-mutes,
will be briefly mentioned.



_GESTURES OF THE LOWER ANIMALS._

Emotional expression in the features of man is to be considered in
reference to the fact that the special senses either have their seat
in, or are in close relation to the face, and that so large a number
of nerves pass to it from the brain. The same is true of the lower
animals, so that it would be inferred, as is the case, that the faces