The Descent of Man

savages. In certain morbid states of the brain
this tendency is exaggerated to an extraordinary
degree: some hemiplegic patients and others,
at the commencement of inflammatory softening
of the brain, unconsciously imitate every
word which is uttered, whether in their own or
in a foreign language, and every gesture or action
which is performed near them. (14. Dr.
Bateman, 'On Aphasia,' 1870, p. 110.) Desor (15.
Quoted by Vogt, 'Memoire sur les Microcephales,'
1867, p. 168.) has remarked that no
animal voluntarily imitates an action performed
by man, until in the ascending scale we
come to monkeys, which are well known to be
ridiculous mockers. Animals, however, sometimes
imitate each other's actions: thus two species
of wolves, which had been reared by dogs,
learned to bark, as does sometimes the jackal
(16. The 'Variation of Animals and Plants under
Domestication,' vol. i. p. 27.), but whether this
can be called voluntary imitation is another
question. Birds imitate the songs of their par-