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or join us) See other formats   CHAP. VIII.
LAUGHTER.                             197  clapped her hands,
and the colour mounted to her cheeks." On other occasions she
has been seen to stamp for joy.2  Idiots and Imbecile persons
likewise afford good evi- dence that laughter or smiling
primarily expresses mere happiness or joy. Dr. Crichton Browne,
to whom, as on so many other occasions., I am indebted for the
results of his wide experience, informs me that with idiots
laughter is the most prevalent and frequent of all the emotional
expressions. Many idiots are morose, pas- sionate., restless, in
a painful state of mind, or utterly stolid, and these never
laugh. Others frequently laugh in a quite senseless manner. Thus
an idiot boy, incapa- ble of speech, complained to Dr. Browne,
by the aid of signs, that another boy in the asylum had given
him a black eye; and this was accompanied by " explosions of
laughter and with his fac