The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-04-19
ANIMALS HAVE LANGUAGE.
Monkeys in Convention and Addressed
by Long-Tailed Patriarch.
From the Gcntlemen's Magazine.

by a Long-Tailed Patriarch.
From the Gcntlemen's Magazine.
The Intellectual superiority of civilized
man over his savage brethren is due to the
greater multiplicity of his objects of thought,
and precisely so is it with the intellectual
superiority of the savage man over his
Simian ancestors. The actions of all have
the same aim, viz. the supplying of the
wants Of physical nature and the gratifying
of the desires aroused IN the mind. The old
theory that speech was altogether limited
to the human race has now to be given up
once and for all, for such statement can
not stand against the scientific evidence
brought forward to oppose it from all quar-
ters.
Language is but product of reflection
and experience, and originated, in all pro-
liability, in interjection or the instructive
expression of the subjective impressions
derived from external nature; and Just as
the reflective powers of the race were de-
veloped and shown brilliantly as each stage
In the evolutionary march of intellect was
passed, SO did language pass from the sim
pie monosyllabic cries of the lower animals
and savage men to the complex dialects of
modern civilization; and it is worthy of
note that at the present day, or at least
very recently, there were races of savage
men inhabiting the earth who possessed no
proper language at all, and could net, on
account of their manner of living, be placed
on higher intellectual level than the higher
apes; while we have the authority of the
leading philologists OF the day in support
of the fact that the monosyllabic cries of
some of the lower human tribes are well
within the grasp of the apes voice.
Travellers whose veracitY and ability can
not be lmpugned have described long con-
terences held by monkeys, where one indi-
vidual addressed the assembly at great
length. fixing the attention of all upon him
self and quelling every disturbance by a
loud and marsh cry, which was at once re-
cognized and obeyed by the multitude; and
we need no traveller to point to us the many
notes of call and recognition possessed by
birds of all kinds, who thoroughly well I'M
derstand each others expressions, and, more
over, are able to produce quite string of
different notes consecutively, and without
any hesitation. In fact, the organ of voice
in some of the lower animals far exceeds in
power that of some tribes of the human
family.
The Euphonia musica of the East Indies
can perform the seven notes in the scale
the chatfinch not only sings real songs. but
invents them, one of his songs containing
as many as five long strophes, while the
songs OF many savage races of men never
run to half that length, and when Cook
visited the FIJI archipelago the native women
could only sing from la to mi. Asia ap-
pears to have been the birthplace of stringed
instruments, no Southern tribes ever having
been discovered using such musical appli>
ances. We see, therefore, a gradual I'm
provement taking place in vocal apparatus
as we rise in the animal scale, which results
in speech and song, and, indirectly, in in
strumental music of various degrees; and
we tlnd fresh proof that there is as vida a
difference between the development of civ
ilized European and the savage man as be-
tween that Of the savage man and his brute
ancestry.