Addison, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 54

Adler, Alfred, his psychological discoveries, 104; on the restlessness of children, 107, 108; on conscious inferiority of children, 114

African natives, what they laugh at, 93

Aristotle, did not think laughter harmless, 42, 44; his discussion of laughter in the Poetics, 43, 44; his definition of wit, 44; 47, 61; on permissible and impermissible provocations of laughter, 100, 101; hints that the Greeks of his day were hypergelastic, 106; on the usefulness of raising a laugh in debates, 125

Augustine, argued that saints laugh at human error, 118

Avory, Mr. Justice, rebukes laughter against the legal profession, 23

Bacon, Lord, his jejune definition of laughter, 27, 33; on laughter at deformity, 102

Bain, Alexander, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 60; on puns, 78; on the facile reputation for wit acquired by august personages, 86; on the power of laughter, 124

Bateman, his caricatures, 25, 81

Battle of the Frogs and Mice, 17

Benda, Julien, on Bergsonism, 122

Benson, Sir Frank, an unfortunate accident to, causes laughter, 21, 22

Bergson, sees no mystery in laughter, 27; his view of laughter, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 46; 50, 51, 61, 65, 72, 75; on puns, 78; on intention to humiliate in laughter, 121; 122

Bible, the, no joke in, 10

Bond, C. J., of the Ministry of Health, on modern decadence, 111

Byron, saw no mystery in laughter, 27; his view of laughter, 34

Caricatures, reason for laughter over, 82

Carlyle, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his pretentious and shallow Sartor Resartus, 34; his view of laughter, 34; his view the most inadequate and false of all, 41

Charles I., not accused of lack of sense of humour by the Puritans, 105

Chandler, Katherine, her study of children's laughter, 96, 97, 98

Chesterfield, Lord, did not think laughter harmless, 42; deprecated laughter, 43; his view of laughter, 55, 58

Chesterton, G. K., foists sense of humour on Christ, 10, 11; the most confused and confusing of humorists, 90; on children's laughter, 126

Children, what they laugh at, 93, 95, 100; Wordsworth's puritanical view of, 99; reason of their readiness to laugh, 107–109

Chilon, urged Spartans not to laugh at one another's misfortunes, 100

Chinese, their low state of culture, 57, 75, 94; what they laugh at, 94, 95

Christ, his lack of a sense of humour, 10; no attempt to foist humour on him until the nineteenth century, 105

Cicero, gave up definition of laughter, 36, 44, 60; his view of laughter, 44; condemned laughter at physical defects, 102; advised orators to raise a laugh, 124; condemned exulting over misery, 126; condemned obscenity, 127

Cleobulus, condemned laughter at other people's expense, 126

Coislinian Treatise on Comedy, author of, did not think that laughter was harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 44

Coleridge, on the pleasure of inhaling laughing gas, 76

Darwin, on laughter in animals, 5; did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 59; his inability to explain it, 60; on exposing the teeth in laughter, 69; on the gutteral sound of laughter, 73; said laugher "must be in a happy frame of mind," 86; on the laughter of monkeys, 124

Dowd, Jerome, on the negro races, 92

Decadence, modern, 110, 111

Demetrius of Alexandria, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 44

Democritus, urged Athenians not to laugh at one another's misfortunes, 100

De Quincey, on jokes in foreign languages, 22; on the inadequate understanding of foreign languages, 118

Descartes, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 45, 46, 47

Dewey, Professor, regards laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 34, 35, 36, 41; 81

Dickens, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 34

Disguises, reason for laughter over, 82

Eastman, Max, The Sense of Humour, 26; his view of laughter, 65, 66, 67, 72

Edgeworth, on the pleasure of inhaling laughing gas, 76

Edwards, S., a superficial writer on laughter, 38, 39

Eliot, George, her profound view of laughter, 34; did not think laughter harmless, 42; on the cruelty of laughter, 93, 94

Emerson, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter,

Englishmen, more manly and independent when they insisted less on a sense of humour, 14

Evans-Pritchard, on obscenity, 85

Fijians, the, what they laugh at, 92

Freud, points to no mystery in laughter, 27; on the functions of laughter, 40, 41, 81

Funafuti, the natives of, what they laugh at, 93

Garrick, David, why he laughed during a tragic scene, 19

Gas (nitrous oxide), laughter under, 20, 76

Goldsmith, Oliver, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 56, 57

Gorgias, on raising a laugh in debate, 84, 125

Gregory, J. C., 66, 72, 80; on "private" laughter, 90

Hazlitt, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter,

Hegel, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 31, 32, 33

Hephæstos, the cripple god, laughed at by the other gods, 19, 74

Herbert, George, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 46, 47

Hobbes, his view of laughter as "self-glory," 28; did not think laughter harmless, 42; his profound view of laughter, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52; 53, 54, 58, 60, 61, 62, 65, 66, 67, 72, 77; said, "laughter is always joy," 86; 87, 88, 90, 117, 126; forestalled modern psychology, 127

Jerome, argued that saints laugh at human error, 118

Jerrold, Douglas, 79

Kaiser, the, his lack of a sense of humour, 7, 105

Kant, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 32, 33, 40; 81

Kasai, the people of, delight in human misery, 92

Kimmins, The Springs of Laughter, 26; his study of children's laughter, 97, 98, 109

Kinglake, on the pleasure of inhaling laughing gas, 76

La Fontaine, fable of The Fox and the Stork , 18

Lamennais, his profound understanding of laughter, 11; did not think laughter harmless, 42; attacked the expression of laughter 58

La Rochefoucauld, on our delight over the misfortunes of our friends, 91

Laud, not accused of lack of sense of humour by the Puritans, 105

Lauder, Harry, reason of his success, 20

Laughter, a sign of cowardice and indolence, 12, 13, 14; various instances of causes of, 19–25; regarded as "self-glory," 28, 50, 52; why is it offensive? 65, 68; the facial contortions of, 69; the exposing of teeth in, 69–72; as the expression of superior adaptation, 74–87; aroused by physical inferiority, 88, 91, 92; and by spiritual maladaptation, 89; specialised, 90; subjective, 90; gradual spiritualisation of causes of, 102, 103; compensatory, 106,107; an anodyne, 115

Lear, Edward, his nonsense pictures, 25, 81

Lipps, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 32

Lloyd Morgan, does not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 61, 63

Loando, the negroes of, what they laugh at, 92

Lowell, on the pleasure of inhaling laughing gas, 76

Luther, his lack of a sense of humour in the modern sense, 9; 105

MacDougall, does not think laughter harmless, 42

Medical profession, the, recent vast increase in numbers of, 110, 127, 128

Melanesians, the, what they laugh at, 92

Mélinaud, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 31, 32, 60

Mercer, the Right Rev. J. E., tried to prove that even God has a sense of humour, 118

Meredith, on laughter, 75

Mimicry, reason for laughter over, 83

Mitchell, Sir Arthur, on laughter under laughing gas, 76

Montesquieu, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 54

Napoleon, his lack of a sense of humour in the modern sense, 9; on success in war and love, 83; not accused by his enemies of lack of sense of humour, 105

Nietzsche, on laughter, 113; on woman's laughter, 125

Nonsense, reason for laughter over, 81, 82; vogue of, due to the complexity of modern life, 112

Northern Rhodesia, the people of, delight in human suffering, 92

Obscenity, reason for laughter over, 84, 85

Pascal, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 27, 30, 31; pleaded that saints might laugh at human folly, 105, 118; Bergson's theory of laughter forestalled by, 121

Penjon, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 34, 35, 41; 80, 81

Plato, 26; did not think laughter harmless, 42, 44; his discussion of laughter in the Philebus, 42, 43; deprecated laughter in the Republic, and the Laws, 43

Plutarch, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 45; condemns laughter at physical defects, 102

Puns, why they cause laughter, 78, 79

Quintilian, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 44, 45

Reade, Charles, The Cloister and the Hearth, 18

Reich, on the Mimes and Atellan farces, 101

Renouvier, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 34, 41; 81

Ribot, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; gave up definition of laughter, 36, 60

Rivers, W. H. R., on the Melanesians, 92

Robinson, Dr., on tickling, 79, 80

Romanes, on laughter being disliked by monkeys, 119

Romans, the, their brutality, 101, 102

Schopenhauer, 25; regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 31, 32, 33; his explanation of the humiliating effect of laughter, 122

Shakespeare, quoted, 78, 85

Sidney, Sir Philip, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 27, 29, 30

Smith, Sydney, on some reasons for laughter, 21; regarded laughter as innocent, 27; not quite clear about laughter, 29; his view of laughter, 30, 31, 118

Smollett, regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 34

Socrates, 26

Southey, on the pleasure of inhaling laughing gas, 76

Spencer, Herbert, his Physiology of Laughter, 25; regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 32, 33, 40; on the negroes of Loando, 92; 120; on modern ill-health, 127

Spinoza, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 51, 52, 53; on "pure" laughter, 128

Stendhal, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 59

Strafford, not accused of lack of sense of humour by the Puritans, 105

Sully, James, his view of laughter, 67, 68; on the resemblance between children and savages, 93

Superior adaptation, defined, 17, 18; laughter the expression of, 74–87

Swift, did not think laughter harmless, 42; his view of laughter, 54; did not accuse his enemies of lack of sense of humour, 105

Teeth, the exposure of, a significant element in laughter, 70, 71

Tertullian, argued that saints laugh at human error, 118

Thomson, Basil, on the Fijians, 92

Tickling, why it causes laughter, 79, 80

Unconscious, defined, 18, 19

Voltaire, on cause for laughter in the theatre, 21; regarded laughter as innocent, 27; his view of laughter, 28, 29, 30, 31, 52, 66, 86, 87

Women, Anglo-Saxon, like men with sense of humour because they can exploit them, 15

Wordsworth, his puritanical view of children, 99

Wrench, Dr., does not think laughter harmless, 42; his useful definition of laughter, 62, 64, 124