The physiology of laughter.

  • Spencer, Herbert, 1820-1903.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The physiology of laughter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LAUGIITEP. BY UERBERT SRENCER. Why do we smile when a child puts on a man’s hat ? or what induces us to laugh on reading that the corpulent Gibbon was unable to rise from his knees after making a tender declaration? Tlie iisual reply to such questions is, that risibility is excited by a perception of incongruity. Even were there not on this reply the obvious criticism that laughter often occurs from extreme pleasure or from mere vivacity, as among frolicsome children, there would still remain the real problem,—How comes a sense of the incongruous to be followed by these peculiar bodily actions ? Some' have alleged that laughter is due to the pleasure of a relative self-elevation which we feel on seeuig the humiliation of others. But this theory, Avhatever portion of truth it may contain, is, in the first place, open to the fatal objection, that there are various humiliations to others which produce in us anything but laughter; and, in the second place, it does not apply to the many instances in which no one’s dignity is implicated : as when we laugh at a good pun. Add to which, that, like the other, it is merely a generalization of certain con- ditions to laughter, and not an expla- nation of the very odd movements which occur under these conditions. Why, when greatly delighted, or im- jmessed with certain unexpected con- trasts of ideas, should there be a contraction of particular facial muscles and particular muscles of the chest? 8uch answer to this question as may be possible, can of course be rendered only by physiology. Every child has made the attempt to hold the foot still while it is tickled, and has failed; and probably there is scarcely any one who has not at some time or other vainly tried to avoid winking when a hand has been sud- denly passed before the eyes. Tliese examples of muscular movements which occur independently of the will, or in spite of it, illustrate what physiologists call reliex-action ; as likewise do sneez- ing and coughing. To this class of cases, in which involuntary motions arc accompanied by sensations, has to be added another class of cases, in which involuntary motions are unaccompanied by sensations :—instance the pulsations of the heart; the contractions of the stomach during digestion. Further, the majority of those who have studied the subject, hold that the great mass of seemingly voluntary acts in such crea- tures as insects, worms, molluscs, are as purely automatic as is the dilatation or closure of the iris imder variations in quantity of light j and similarly exem- plify the law, that an impression on the end of an afterent nerve is conveyed to some ganglionic centre, and is thence usually reflected along an efferent nerve to one or more muscles Avhich it causes to contract. In a modified form this principle holds with voluntary acts. Hervous excitation always tends to beget muscu- lar motion; and when it rises to a certain intensity, always does beget it. Hot only in reflex actions, whether with or without sensation, do we see that special nerves, when raised to a state of tension, discharge themselves on special muscles with which they are indirectly connected ; but those external actions, through which Ave read the feelings of others, shoAV us that under any con- siderable tension, the nervous system in general discharges itself on the muscu- lar system in general, either with or without the guidance of the will. The shivering produced by cold implies ir- regular muscular contractions, which, though at first only partly involuntary, become, when the cold is extreme, almost wholly involuntary. When you have severely burnt your finger, it is very difficult to preserve a dignified composure : contortion of face, or move- ment of limb, is pretty sure to follow.