The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1891-06-13
DO MONKEYS SAY WORDS?
EXPERIMENTS SHOW THAT THEY
HAvE ARTIoULATE SPEECH.


From the Eeto York Herald.
In coming before the world with a new
theory am aware that 1T may have to I'M
dergo many repairs and be modified by
many new ideas.
On entering the world of science it be-
gins its struggle for life," and under the
law of "the survival Of the fittest' its fate
must be decided. am aware that it is
beresy to doubt the dogmas of science as
well as of some religious sects, but sustained
bv proofs too strong TO be ignored am
willing to incur the ridicule of the wise asd
the sheer of bigots and assert that "articu-
late speech" prevails among the lower
nrimates and that their speech contains the
rudiments from which the tongues of man
kind could easily develop. and to me it
seems quite possible to find proofs to show
that such is the origin of human speech.
THEIR SOUNDS HAVE MEANINGS.
have long believed that each sound ut
tered by an animal had q meaning which
any other animal of the same kind would
interpret at once. Animals soon learn to
interpret certain words of man and to obey
them, but never try to repeat them. When
they reply to man IL is always In their own
have often watched the conduct of dog
az he would speak, until could interpret
meaning to his combined act aud speech. /
observed the same thing in other species
with the same results; and it occurred to me
that if | could correctly initiate these
sounds might learn to interpret them more
fully and prove to myself whether It was
really uniform speech or not.
Some seven years ago, IN the Cincinnati
geological garden, was deeply impressed
by the conduct of a number of monkeys
Gagged with a savage rib nosed mandril,
which they seemed to fear very much. The
cage was divided by wall through which
was small doorway leading from the inner
to an outer compartment In which was q
tall upright, supporting platform at Its
Every movement Of the mandril seemed
to be closely watched by the monkeys that
could see him and instantly reported to
those in the other compartment.
1T WAS A GREAT TASK.
The conduct of these monkeys so CON-
frmed nv belief and inspired me with new
hopes and new zeal that believed "the key
to the secret chamber" was within my
grasp Regarded the task of learning the
monkey tongne as very much the same as
learning that of strange race of mankind;
more difficult in the degree Of its inferiorlty,
but less in volume.
p Year by year, as new ideas were revealed
to me, new barriers arose, and | began to
realize how great a task was mine. One
difficulty was to utter the sounds heard,
another was to recall them and yet another
was to translate them. Impelled by an
eternal hope and not discouraged by poor
success, | continued my studies as best
could In the gardens OF New York, Phila-
dslphis, Cincinnati and Chicago. and with
such specimens as l could find with the
travelling menagerie, museum or hAnd or
gan, or aboard some ship, or kept as pct
in some family. They have all aided In
teaching the little know Of their native
tongues.
But at last came a revelstionl A new
idea dawned upon me, and, after wrestling
half night with IL, felt assured of ulti-
mate success.
l went to Washington and called upon
DR.. Frank Baker, director Of the National
Geological Garden, and proposed the novel
experiment. of acting as interpreter between
two monkeys. OF course ha- laughed, but
not in derision or in doubt. for scientific
men are always credulous and believe all
they are told. | then explained to him how
it was possible and he quite agreed with me-
We set the time and prepared for the work.
The plan was quite simple.
THE PHoNoGRAPH.
We separated two monkeys which had
been Gagged together, and placed them in
separate rooms. then arranged phono-
graph near the cage Of the female and
caused her too utter a few sounds, which
were recorded on the cylinder, The ma
chine was then placed near the cage con-
tanning the male, and the record repeated
to him and his conduct closely studied.
The surprise and perplexity OF the male
were evident,
He traced the sounds to the horn from
which they came, and failing to find his
mate he thrust bis hand and arm into the
horn quite up to his shoulder, withdrew it,
and peeped into the horn again and again.
He would then retreat and again cautiously
approach the horn, which hs examined with
evident interest.
The expressions of his face were indeed q
study. Having satisfied myself that he re-
cognized the sounds as those of his mate, l
next proceeded TO record some of his efforts,
but my success was not fully up to my
hopes. Yet had secured from him enough
to win the attention of his mats, and elicit
from her some signs of recognition.
And thus, for the first time in the history
OF philology, the simian tongue was re-
duced to record. My belief was now oon-
frmed, and the faith of others strengthened
noted some of the defects in my experi-
nent, and provided against them for the
future.
oolhe weeks later, IN pno lineage ZOOlOgt-
cal garden, made some splendid phono-
graphic records; and thence l went TO the
Cincinnati garden, where | secured, among
others. fine, distinct record of the two
chlmpansees, all of which | brought home
with me for study.
SUCCESS AS A LINGUIsT.
placed them on the machine and re-
peated them over and over, until became
quite familiar with the sounds and improved
myself very much in my efforts to utter
Chem. returned to Cincinnati and Chica-
go some weeks later, and tried my skill as
linguist with degree Of success far be-
yond my widest hopes.
having described to some of my friends
VINO were with me the word | would use, l
STOOD for while with my side turned to
'tne cage containing capuchin monkey
lCe6uS cdpucinusl. uttered the word or
sound which had translated milk"
MY first effort caught his ear and caused
MIN to turn and look at me. On repeating
IL some three or four times he answered me
very distinctly with the same word had
useo, and then turned TO small pan kept
ID the cage for him TO drink from.
4, repeated the word again and he placed
tne pau near the front OF the cage and came
YulIe up to the bars and uttered the word i.
mad not shown him any milk or anything
VI the kind. But the man in charge then
brought me some milk, which gave to
hitn. and he drank IL with great zest, then
lOOked at me- held M the nan and repeated