Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-11-08
MONKEY TALK OF THE FUTURE.
Prof. Garner Says That Men and Apes
WIN Converse Together Yet

MONKEY TALK OF THE FUTURE.
Prof Garner Says That Men and Apes
WIN Converse Together Yet.
| n N srnPLY A QUESTION or LRARNISa rHx
MONKEY LANGUAGE AND THAT OUGHT NOT TO BIZ
VERY HARD-rHk PROFESSOR Is GATHERING A
VOCABULARY BY MEANS OF THE PHoSooRAPH
n. HAVE just returned from q trip, to Chi
cago and Cincinnati in both Of which
cities spent good deal Of time zooog-
ical gardening, and secured number Of
~ valuable phonograph records Of monkey
conversation on cylinders"
So said Prof. r. L. Garner Of Roanoke. hon.
| orary curator of the Smithsonian Institution, to
writer for THE STAR yesterday and added:
MY purpose in the experiments am max
ing Is to obtain analysis Of the language Of
monkeys that will enable nae to make out some
sort of rude vocabulary Of their tongue. This
accomplished, An sure that can establish
communication by words with them so as to
effect an interchange Of ideas. In fact. can
see no reason why man and a monkey should
not actually converse together. the one re-
qusite being that the man shall be acquainted
with the monkeys speech. The latter is ex-
ceedingly simple, and the key to it once OBJ
tanned, most easily learned. 1t can hardly be
expected Of the monkey that he shall acquire
human language.
at iswith view to getting hold OF this key
to the simian tongue that 1 am taking advan-
tage OF every opportunity to procure records
on phonogtaph cylinders Of sounds uttered by
monkeys. The managers OF the ZOOS in Gin
cinnati and Chicago exhibited much interest
I'D my recent experiments in those cities and
qld their best to help me with them. Indeed,
nnd on all sides most cordial sympathy with
inc inquiry am making Ia this new line OF
scientific investigation. The idea is entirely
original with myself, but my belief lis that the
study o: the languages OF the lower animals Is
neid that will before very long attract an
army Of workers.
TWO WORDS ALREADY.
ALREADY can make a capuchin monkey I'M
derstand two words wherever | NAV meet him.
One of these words is milk and is uttered by
all OF them, so far as have been able to dis
cover. in precisely the same way. On APP
preaching any strange capuchin for the first
time salute him with the term. which invari-
ably procures his attention and good will. The
word IN question, however, belongs only to
that one species. For you must understand
that dlferent varieties of monkeys employ
vastly different languages. the speech OF one
variety being as little known to another is
the case among tribes of men. But monkeys
OF the same variety all use the same language.
ineligible for conversational purposes among
themselves. though possibly varied to a slight
oeSree by dialect. So far l can find out
none OF the lower animals has a range OF more
THAN ten or twelve vocal sounds. but these,
oelng simply lnterjectonal NAV be modi-
ned by enunclatiOn as to make nouns and verbs.
Apparently the monkey has forty or fifty words
| effectively at his command
Il ind that / can communicate to the
capuchln the fact that / am in pain. and can
make sick capuchin understand INV svm-
| pathies with his suffering Ii is almost impos-
sible to give in printed letters illustrations of
the vocal sounds of monkeys, inasmuch as they
are nearly all vowels 1t can be said. however,
! that the sounds are strikingly like those
uttered by human beings as the expressions of
| similar emotions. The vocal organs in the
lower animals are comparatively documentary.
but development follows use and effort All
the words that monkey needs he has y; his
command. incidentally to the modern adv$ ace
ment OF the human race thousands of words
have been added to our own speech which
were not needed by our early progenitors. You
will find certain tribes of men described by the
Greek writer Strabo who had no language,
but shrieked like wild beasts only utterIng
very few sounds.
AS FOR PALRoLITHIc MAN
of hundreds of thousands of wears AGO there
are many scientific authorities who assert that
"O "oo oStuai4s CTcdNuFe-ds OumD.
that is to say, the monkey is now. 1t is read
lily observed that those animals which have
been associated with man for many generations
are capable of producing many more vocal
! sounds than others of like species which have
| not enjoyed the same advantage For example.
the domestic cat is decidedly superior in this
respect to any othe: beast of the feline genus
The reason for this is found in the change of
| environment and ASSOCIATION with multiplied
| Ideas, increased wants, &c.
| Low down in the scale Of animal creation
you discover that signs are altogether employed
| as a means OF communication. This is exem-
plihed by insects. fish and reptiles. Among
other things they readily understand any threat
| OF attack made by their own species. L myself
have noticed that common red ants make use
among themselves of signs which they readily
| interpret. =. -
Il am unable to say with any degree of GER
| tainty what variety of monkey is the most in
tellgent, but l am inclined to think-thoupb
| this belief. founded upon observation is
! greatly at variance with the popular ldea-that
| the most intelligent specimens are found
| among the smaller species and generally
among those with tails instead of otherwise
| My study Of the chimpanzee disposes me 10
surmise that its intelligence less closely re-
sembles that of man than is the case with some
OF the smaller monkeys.
EXPERIMENTAL PROSPECTS.
at was only recently that the idea of using
the photograph to obtain records of monkey
vocal sounds for study occurred to me.
Through its aid 1 hope to be able within
year to go long way toward making out a
vocabulary of smian language, which will
serve as a beginning in establish ing inter-con-
| muncaton. You must not imagine that pro-
! pose to demonstrate the possibility of con-
verting the monkey into a man. The monkey
will always remain a monkey. but it NAV be
| that, by long-continued breeding and educat-
ing, race of m >pkeys very far superior to any
at present existing be produced When a
means of conversing with the monkey has been
| secured II will be time enough to think of the
intellectual ana moral development of our
arboreal cousins"