manipulation in causing an English terrier to form a number of the
sounds of our letters, and particularly brought out from it the words
"How are you, Grandmamma?" with distinctness. This tends to prove
that only absence of brain power has kept animals from acquiring true
speech. The remarkable vocal instrument of the parrot could be used in
significance as well as in imitation, if its brain had been developed
beyond the point of expression by gesture, in which latter the bird is
expert.

The gestures of monkeys, whose hands and arms can be used, are nearly
akin to ours. Insects communicate with each other almost entirely by
means of the antennæ. Animals in general which, though not deaf, can
not be taught by sound, frequently have been by signs, and probably
all of them understand man's gestures better than his speech. They
exhibit signs to one another with obvious intention, and they also
have often invented them as a means of obtaining their wants from man.



_GESTURES OF YOUNG CHILDREN._

The wishes and emotions of very young children are conveyed in a
small number of sounds, but in a great variety of gestures and facial
expressions. A child's gestures are intelligent long in advance of
speech; although very early and persistent attempts are made to give
it instruction in the latter but none in the former, from the time
when it begins _risu cognoscere matrem_. It learns words only as they
are taught, and learns them through the medium of signs which are not
expressly taught. Long after familiarity with speech, it consults
the gestures and facial expressions of its parents and nurses as