Laughter.

Cromwell Argus, Volume VI, Issue 299, 4 August 1875, Page 7

Laughter.

There are probably more varieties of laughter than oF any other human operation. The most notablo is the roaring laugh, round, hearty, and boisterous. There are also simpers, sniffs, titters, and guffaws. Steele arranges the several kinds of laughter under the following heads :—“ The Dimplers, tho Smilers, the Laughers, the Grinners, and the Horse-laughers. The Dimple is practised to give grace to the features, and is frequently' made a bait to entangle a gazing lover. This was called by the Ancients the Chain laugh. The Smile is for the most part confined to the fair sex and their male retinue. It expresses our satisfaction, in a silent sort of approbation, and doth not too much disorder the features, and is practised, by lovers of the most delicate address. This tender motion of physiognomy tho Ancients Called the lonic laugh. The Laugh among us is the common risns of the Ancients. Tho Grin by writers of antiquity is called the Syncrqsian ; and was then, as it is at this time, made use of to display a beautiful set of teeth. The Horse-laugh, or the sardonic, is made use of with great success in all kinds of disputations. The proficient in this, by a well-timed laugh, will baffle the most solid argument. This upon all occasions supplies the want of reason, is always received with great applause in coffee-house disputes ; and that side the laugh joins with is generally observed to gain the better of his antagonist.” Some men laugh in a marvellously comical manner, whilst the sight alone of another man’s face is the signal for general up-, roar. A third will set his whole face and body in motion as though doubled up'with pain, and then bellow forth a huge volume of sound. A fourth jerks his head backwards like a Chinese toy, or sways his body to and fro like a pendulum, inwardly convulsed until his face is blue with emotion, when he suddenly bursts forth like a roaring lion, continuing to keep up a series of spasmodic roars at intervals ; or he thrusts his hands into his breeches pockets, shuts his eyes, wriggles about, throws himself into a chair, kicks out his legs, and finally collapses quite exhausted, with a face running like a wet blanket. The laugh of Teufelsdrock, as described by Carlyle, is an instance of this kind of immoderate laughter. “ Paul, in his serious way, was giving one of those inimitable ‘ Extraharangues,’ and, as it phanced, on the proposal for a cast-metal king ; gradually a light kindled in onr Professor’s eyes and face, a beaming, mantling, loveliest light; through those murky features, a radiant, ever young Apollo, looked ; and he hurst forth like the neighing of all Tattersall’s—tears streaming down his cheeks, pipe held aloof, feet clutched in the air—loud, long-continuing, ' uncontrollable ; a laugh, not of the face and diaphragm, but of the whole man from head to heel.” It is a well-known fact that laughter conduces to health, by accelerating circulation and forcing the venous blood through the lungs, Celcua, one of the oldest writers on medicine, recommended comic representations to his patients as a cure for their various ailments. The physicians of onr own day are well aware of the beneficial results that follow when an invalid indulges in a good bona fide laugh. Sterne remarks upon this point: “ I live in constant endeavor to fence against the infirmities of illhealth and other evils of life, by mirth, being firmly persuaded that every time a man smiles—but much more so when he labghs—it adds something to this fragment of life,” Laughter is also conducive to longevity ; and in this respect is similar to singing, reading, and speaking aloud, which strengthen and invigorate the lungs. — Social limew.'