The Durham daily globe. (Durham, N.C.) 1889-1894, 1892-01-07
BABIES AND APES.
Some Simple Experiments Showing sur
prising Resemblance.

C"AtC . Ill ~ uithA
prising I~<esembIsnces.
An infant was Growing loudly and IEs-
| tily somewhere at the back of the house.
The sounds were inarticulate to out
siders; but DIR. Robinson, the babys
father, if he heard them, would doubt
less be able to interpret them as the III
teresting remains Of the Simian tongue.
For DIR. LOuis Robinson, whenever DUR
ing the last two or three years he found
a leisure hour in his busy life, has studied
the ape in the babe. 1t was in order to
obtain some detailed information OF this
subject from the author Of "Darwinism
in the Nursery" that our representative
had called on DIR. Robinson at Lewis
ham:
The article is intensely interesting"
l said to the doctor, but there is not
enough Of it. We al want to know more
about your experiments with the young
apes. What are the actual discoveries
your experiments led to-"
Simply this, that every new born
child, unless it is sickly or otherwise i'm
perfectly developed, has a most wonder
full power in the f1eXor muscles Of the
forearm, and will support the whole
weight of it's body, during the first few
hours after birth, for a period varying
from ten seconds to two minutes and a
half. Now, everybody knows that in
monkeys the power Of grip is very fully
developed; quadrumana can do any.
thing with their hands and arms, and in
cases Of danger this power is a chief
means Of self preservation. | nave now
experimental on $50 babies; some OF
them an hour or two, some a few days
old-and in two cases only have they
failed to hang by their hands, even the
tlnlest supporting the weight of its body
for ten seconds, most of them much
longer, and in a few cases they have
chung to a finger or a stick for two min
utes and a half. And even in the two
cases failure was due to other causes than
the infants lack Of muscular strength.
| ought to say that never attempted to
experiment on weak children, who
might be injured by the exposure. A
blanket was placed below the child, 50
that when it dropped it dropped on Il
soft, warm surface. Whenever it was
possible the experiment was made and
the photograph taken in the presence OF
the mother.
Ion the face of one, aged sixty mia
utes, sat stole indifference; two more
looked energetic, though placid, as they
stuck with their round little fists to Il
branch at the end of which appeared two
hands, looking very gigantic in com
parison to the very youthful performers.
SHnon nfl1.- ~ nr;7o~+1-
their feelings in the Simian tongue, for
their NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. sized mouths
they seemed-were wide. open. The
miniature legs, absurdly small in pro
portion to the arms. were drawn up; the
babes looked indeed like ~taillass infant
apes.
"Observe the big toe" DR.. Robinson
went on. u have noticed over and over
again that in the case Of young infants
it is turned outward, like Il thumb. as in
the case Of monkeys, whose hind feet are
an additional pair of hands. And when
ever | have held q finger or q stick close
to the infants feet while it was hanging
by its arms there has been an attempt
at clutching the stick with the feet. This
seems to me another instance of the sur
vival Of the apes instincts in the human
child.
Another curious fact that struck me
was that wen when a child had been
hanging by its hands for over n minute
this seems Il short period, but just try
to hang 10 a horizontal bar, supporting
the weight Of your body by your hands
only, for 3 minute or two-it let go more
because it wanted to change its position
than because it was tired. Sometimes /
gave it my finger to clutch as soon as il
dropped IN to the blanket, and | could
feel by the energetic grip that the little
animal was by no mean eXhausted."-
Cor. Pail Mall Gazette.