snippets, 4-17-2014

It is...probable that the many points of close similarity in the various races are due to inheritance from a single parent-form...

- The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin, 1899.

Yeah. We call that guy "Adam."

I don't understand why people have a problem with Darwin. The voice I hear is that of a kind, playful, observant and thoughtful man who loved children and dogs:

Under a transport of Joy or of vivid Pleasure, there is a strong tendency to various purposeless movements, and to the utterance of various sounds. We see this in our young children, in their loud laughter, clapping of hands, and jumping for joy; in the bounding and barking of a dog when going out to walk with his master; and in the frisking of a horse when turned out into an open field. Joy quickens the circulation, and this stimulates the brain, which again reacts on the whole body...

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If a watch be placed within the mouth, but not allowed to touch the sides, the ticking is heard much less plainly than when held outside.

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I was convinced that [my first-born infant] understood a smile and received pleasure from seeing one, answering it by another, at much too early an age to have learnt anything by experience. When this child was about four months old, I made in his presence many odd noises and strange grimaces, and tried to look savage; but the noises, if not too loud, as well as the grimaces, were all taken as good jokes; and I attributed this at the time to their being preceded or accompanied by smiles.

I like books with words like "platysma" and "guanaco" and "deglutition." And paragraphs like this:

No emotion is stronger than maternal love; but a mother may feel the deepest love for her helpless infant, and yet not show it by any outward sign; or only by slight caressing movements, with a gentle smile and tender eyes. But let anyone intentionally injure her infant, and see what a change! how she starts up with threatening aspect, how her eyes sparkle and her face reddens...