as “to pop.” A joking name for the posterior part is “the bum.” (Poop also means the rear end of a ship.) In French, _pouf!_ is onomatopoetic; _pouffer_ = _platzen_ (to explode), _la poupe_ = rear end of ship, _le poupard_ = the baby in arms, _la poupée_ = doll. _Poupon_ is a pet name for a chubby-faced child. In Dutch _pop_, German _Puppe_ and Latin _puppis_ = doll; in Plautus, however, it is also used jokingly for the posterior part of the body; _pupus_ means child; _pupula_ = girl, little dollie. The Greek word ποππύζω designates a cracking, snapping or blowing sound. It is used of kissing; by Theocritus also of the associated noise of flute blowing. The etymologic parallels show a remarkable relationship between the part of the body in question and the child. This relationship we will mention here, only to let it drop at once, as this question will claim our attention later. One of my patients in his childhood had always connected the act of defecation with a phantasy that his posterior was a volcano and a violent eruption took place, explosion of gases and gushings forth of lava. The terms for the elemental occurrences of nature are originally not at all poetical; one thinks, for example, of the beautiful phenomenon of the meteor, which the German language most unpoetically calls “Sternschnuppe” (the smouldering wick of a star). Certain South American Indians call the shooting star the “urine of the stars.” According to the principle of the least resistance, expressions are taken from the nearest source available. (For example, the transference of the metonymic expression of urination as _Schiffens_, “to rain.”)