is formed by the dry distillation of hydrobenzamide, or by saturating an alcoholic solution of benzil and benzaldehyde (at a temperature of 40° C.) with ammonia. It crystallizes in needles which melt at 275° C. It is a weak base. When heated to 300° C. with hydriodic acid and hydrochloric acid, in the presence of some red phosphorus, it yields benzoic acid.
The keto-glyoxalines are known as imidazolones and are prepared by the action of acids on acetalyl thioureas (W. Marckwald, Ber., 1892, 25, p. 2357). Benzimidazole,
is the simplest representative of the benzoglyoxalines and is prepared by the condensation of formic acid with ortho-phenylene diamine. It forms rhombic crystals which melt at 170° C. It is basic in character, and on oxidation with potassium permanganate yields a small amount of glyoxaline dicarboxylic acid,
(E. Bamberger, Ann., 1893, 273, p. 338).
IMITATION (Lat. imitatio, from imitari, to imitate), the reproduction or repetition of an action or thought as observed in another person or in oneself, or the construction of one object in the likeness of another. By some writers (e.g. Preyer and Lloyd Morgan) the term “imitation” is limited to cases in which one person copies the action or thought of another; others have preferred a wider use of the term (i.e. including “self-imitation”), and have attempted to classify imitative action into various groupings, e.g. as cases of “conscious imitation,” “imitative suggestion,” “plastic imitation” (as when the members of a crowd subconsciously reproduce one another’s modes of thought and action), and the like. The main distinction is that which takes into account the question of attention (q.v.). In conscious imitation, the attention is fixed on the act and its reproduction: in unconscious imitation the reproduction is entirely mechanical and the agent does not “attend” to the action or thought which he is copying: in subconscious imitation the action is not deliberate, though the necessary train of thought would immediately follow if the attention were turned upon it under normal conditions. Imitation plays an extremely important part in human and animal development, and a clear understanding of its character is important both for the study of primitive peoples, and also in the theories of education, art and sociology. The child’s early development is in large measure imitative: thus the first articulate sounds and the first movements are mainly reproductions of the words and actions of parents, and even in the later stages that teacher is likely to achieve the best results who himself gives examples of how a word should be pronounced or an action done. The impulse to imitate is, however, not confined to children: there is among the majority of adults a tendency to assimilate themselves either to their society or to those whom they especially admire or respect: this tendency to shun the eccentric is rooted deeply in human psychology. Moreover, even among highly developed persons the imitative impulse frequently overrides the reason, as when an audience, a crowd, or even practically a whole community is carried away by a panic for which no adequate ground has been given, or when a cough or a yawn is imitated by a company of people. Such cases may be compared with those of persons in mesmeric trances who mechanically copy a series of movements made by the mesmerist. The universality of the imitative impulse has led many psychologists to regard it as an instinct (so William James, Principles of Psychology, ii. 408; cf. [Instinct]), and in that large class of imitative actions which have no obvious ulterior purpose the impulse certainly appears to be instinctive in character. On the other hand where the imitator recognizes the particular effect of a process and imitates with the deliberate intention of producing the same effect, his action can scarcely be classed as instinctive. A considerable number of psychologists have distinguished imitative from instinctive actions (e.g. Baldwin, and Sully). According to Darwin the imitative impulse begins in infants at the age of four months. It is to be noted, however, that the child imitates, not every action indiscriminately, but especially those towards which it has a congenital tendency. The same is true of animals: though different kinds of animals may live in close proximity, the young of each kind imitate primarily the actions of their own parents.
Among primitive man imitation plays a very important part. The savage believes that he can bring about events by imitating them. He makes, for instance, an image of his enemy and pierces it with darts or burns it, believing that by so doing he will cause his enemy’s death: similarly sailors would whistle, or farmers would pour water on the ground, in the hope of producing wind or rain. This form of imitation is known as sympathetic magic (see [Magic]). The sociological importance of imitation is elaborately investigated by Gabriel Tarde (Les Lois de l’imitation, 2nd ed., 1895), who bases all social evolution on the imitative impulse. He distinguishes “custom imitations,” i.e. imitations of ancient or even forgotten actions, and “mode imitations,” i.e. imitations of current fashions. New discoveries are, in his scheme, the product of the conflict of imitations. This theory, though of great value, seems to neglect original natural similarities which, by the law of causation, produce similar consequences, where imitation is geographically or chronologically impossible.