momentary and scarcely perceptible raising of both shoulders; or, as I
have noticed in a lady sitting in an arm-chair, to the mere turning
slightly outwards of the open hands with separated fingers. I have
never seen very young English children shrug their shoulders, but the
following case was observed with care by a medical professor and
excellent observer, and has been communicated to me by him. The father
of this gentleman was a Parisian, and his mother a Scotch lady. His
wife is of British extraction on both sides, and my informant does not
believe that she ever shrugged her shoulders in her life. His children
have been reared in England, and the nursemaid is a thorough
Englishwoman, who has never been seen to shrug her shoulders. Now, his
eldest daughter was observed to shrug her shoulders at the age of
between sixteen and eighteen months; her mother exclaiming at the time,
Look at the little French girl shrugging her shoulders! At first she
often acted thus, sometimes throwing her head a little backwards and on
one side, but she did not, as far as was observed, move her elbows and
hands in the usual manner. The habit gradually wore away, and now, when
she is a little over four years old, she is never seen to act thus. The
father is told that he sometimes shrugs his shoulders, especially when
arguing with any one; but it is extremely improbable that his daughter
should have imitated him at so early an age; for, as he remarks, she
could not possibly have often seen this gesture in him. Moreover, if
the habit had been acquired through imitation, it is not probable that
it would so soon have been spontaneously discontinued by this child,
and, as we shall immediately see, by a second child, though the father
still lived with his family. This little girl, it may be added,
resembles her Parisian grandfather in countenance to an almost absurd
degree. She also presents another and very curious resemblance to him,
namely, by practising a singular trick. When she impatiently wants
something, she holds out her little hand, and rapidly rubs the thumb
against the index and middle finger: now this same trick was frequently
performed under the same circumstances by her grandfather.
This gentleman s second daughter also shrugged her shoulders before the
age of eighteen months, and afterwards discontinued the habit. It is of
course possible that she may have imitated her elder sister; but she
continued it after her sister had lost the habit. She at first
resembled her Parisian grandfather in a less degree than did her sister
at the same age, but now in a greater degree. She likewise practises to
the present time the peculiar habit of rubbing together, when
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