Kansas City daily journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1892-1897, 1895-05-21
GORILLISH AS SHE Is SPOKE.
SOME EXPERIMENTS IN STUDYING THE
LANGUAGE OF MONKEYS.
1t is Perhaps True That the Monkey Is
Nearer Allied to Human Beings Than
Supposedly Labordc's Care
full study OF the Matter.

Evidence is now introduced to prove
that the learned Professor" Garner did
not so out into the wild woods of Afri
ca and live in a cage for the purpose of
phonographing the language of the mon
keys; that during the time he was in
Africa he never saw gorilla, or any
other respectable ape, except. perhaps,
in a picture: that he lived in quiet,
comfortable place in the Dark Continent,
and took the world easily while there,
and that, although he can conjugate the
verb singer. he does not speak a single
word of Gorillish.
At least, such is the testimony of a
clergyman belonging to the congrega-
tiOn of the Saint Esprit, who is now in
Paris. and claims to have seen the pro-
fessor while in Africa, and to know all
about everything that he did there.
Sad at the thought that Gorillish is,
perhaps, only a dead language, re-
porter of the Matin started out to find
DR.. Laborde, the learned biologist of the
Paris faculty of medicine, who consent
ed to be interviewed on the subject.
For two years" said Professor La
borde. Il made a study of the language
of animals, and also made numerous
observations. AS a matter of fact, 1t
has been established long since that
sign language exists among n certain
number of animals. This language is
much in the same fashion as 1t is car
ried on by the Polynesians and similar
savages whose languages are confined to
about a dozen words, and who supply
the insutficiency by gestures
Sir John Lubbock has described quite
a number of the signs that the ants en-
ploy frequently among themselves. I
imagine that we might be able to deter
mine with more facility the value and
the character of the signs of the mon
L., To ..l1 of
the future the care of arranging these
details, which appear TO me to be of sec
ondary interest.
TO observe the gradual approach
from the sign language toward the pho
netic language in the case of the mon
key is to point out the first steps toward
civilization. Is it not the solving of the
problem of the origin of Languages
which only recently skeptic declared
to be insolvable? For my part, con-
WINGED as | am of the Importance of
these studies, attracted by the vast hor
izon which they open, | would wish 10
conhne all my efforts toward them
My opinion is that the monkey at
the present time does not express him
self by articulate sounds. The differ
ences that l have noticed between his
cries Of joy, of pain and of anger We're
always in intonation, and never in artic-
ulation. But / believe that the con-
formation of this animal presenting no
obstacle to the pronunciation of words
it Is solely to the absence of favorable
circumstances that we must attribute
the check of his development in this
sense"
The Reporter: "Then the monkey is a
talker who has simply missed the chance
Of revealing himself as such ?"
Professor Laborde: Precisely The
opportunities would make the conditions
of surroundings of existence, of repro
duction somewhat modified, Could we
transform them artidcially? l think so;
in fact, | firmly believe it. And that is
few of my animals. The greatest diff
Guilty ! had was to preserve my young
subjects in this climate. Then all died
just about the time when they began 10
reveal interesting traits. Nevertheless,
l have been able to discover a few Curl
Gus facts. My first efforts We're with an
African dog faced monkey that we
called Gnou-Gnou, He was remarkable
for his faculties of imitation; but this
kind of monkey faculty is common to all
is simply TO mention that when he stole
my instruments and tried to make use
of them in his own fashion, he always
brought back to me each one on the
verbal demand, without ever making a
mistake. In his cage l placed three re-
ceptacles for his pittance, cup for his
milk, a basket for his oranges and a
plate for his cakes. When you APP
preached him and said: 'Gnou-Gnou, l
am going to give you an orange he
presented the basket. II you brought
him milk he grabbed his cup, and all
that without mistake.
by these examples and others, that
would be too long to refer TO- | became
convinced that almost all our usual
words had a meaning for Gnou-Gnou.
although the chimpanZee, Juliette,
which all Paris went TO admire last
year, was not trained by scientific men,
one cannot fail TO remark the curious
results that her owners obtained from
her training. Juliette was remarkably
affectionate. She would kiss you, just
like a child. She slept in a regular
bed. She took her food just like her fos-
ter parents, and among other acts which !
gave evidence of an intellectual effort |
somewhat complicated, l may cite the !
cigarette and placed II In her hand, and |
at the same time asked her what was to |
be done with that, she Immediately put /
il into his mouth. In this way,through |.
a very snort training, ihfoush the sim |
pie association of her life with human
existence, the faculties Of the little |
creature We're increased to such a de- /
gree that when / afterwards dissected 1
her, / found that she had an abnormal |
of the third ciconvolution |
of the brain.
with Zizi. another monkey, my ef- |
forts were directed toward a final aim. /
imagined that / had found method /
to make him substitute the articulations I
Of sylables for his sign language. And i
/ did not succeed in this mat |
ter, l am still satisfied that with two |
conditions easy To obtain, the thing
could be accomplished. Let me explain. 1
The monkey is by temperament essen /
TALLY visual, and with him all images
must be of the visual order. His mem |
Dry being consequently visual. can re- /