The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1901-09-06
OUR MONKEY KINSHIP,
Many Facts Sus ain the Darwinian
Theory,


A series of careful experiments with
monkeys has recently been conducted
by Professor Edward L. Thorndike to
ascertain the power and process by
which these animals acquire knowl-
edge. He has reached the conclu sion
that there is no warrant for the popu-
lar idea that monkeys and other ami
ais learn from human example and by
processes followed by man. But, the
experimenter says, the fact that mon
keys do not possess the human types Of
ideas must not be taken as evidence
that they are no nearer relatives to
mentally than are the other lower ami
mails. On the contrary, they occupy
an intermediate position in every
main psychological feature between
mammals in general and the human
species. The essentials in an inven-
tory of an animals mental capacities
are its sense powers, the kinds of
movements it can make and their de-
LEGACY, compiexity and number, it's in
stincts or the sum of those tendencies
to feel and act which it has apart from
experience or learning and it's method
of learning or of modifying its be-
havior to suit the multitudinous cir
cumstances of life. In each of these
respects the monkeys show kinship
with man. In their motor equipment
monkeys possess first of all the mus
cular combinations necessary to sus-
tain an upright position and conse-
quently the use of the forelimbs. The
movements of these forelimbs are more
! in number and suited to more complex
and varied tasks than are those of
lower animals. The attractiveness of
the monkey cage in a geological gar
den is largely due to the similarity of
the monkeys movements and our own.
The monkey not only has a body like
mans, but he also uses it like a
man. Our native tendencies are so
metamorphosed by the education of a
civilized environment that in adult
age they seldom appear in recognize
able form. But if we take human be-
! ings at from months to 3,years of
age or later we find plenty of traits
/ that appear in the monkeys. In fact,
the human instinct which is perhaps
of prime Importance in human men
tality, the instinct which perhaps il
the real cause of many of our most
! boosted powers, has its clear prototype
and homologue in the monkey. re-
fer to the instructive enjoyment OF
physical and mental activity in gen
eral, to the tendency to act and fee
as much as possible, regardless of any
ulterior practical considerations, which
we sometimes call destructiveness or
constructiveness and curiosity. Even
the casual observer, if he has any
psychological insight, will be struck
by the general, aimless, intrinsically
valuable Ito the animals feelings)
physical activities of a monkey COM
pared with the specialized, definitely
aroused, utilitarian activities of dog
or cat Watch the latter and he does
but few things, does them in response
| to obvious sense presentations, does
them with practical consequences of
food. sex indulgence, preparation fol-
adult battles, etc. If nothing that
appeals to- his special organization
comes up he does nothing. Watch a
monkey and you cannot enumerate the
things he does, cannot discover the
stimuli to which he reacts, cannot con-
ceiye the raison d'etre of has pursuits.
Everything appeals to him. He likes
to be active for the sake of activity.
The observer who has proper oppor-
tunities and takes proper pains will
find this intrinsic interest to hold true
of mental activity as we'll. Finally,
in their method of learning, although
monkeys do not reach the human stage
of rich life OF ideas, yet they carry
the animal method of learning by the
selection of impulses and association
of them with the different sense i'm
pressions, to a point beyond that
reached by any other of the lower ami
mails. In this, too, they resemble man,
for he differs from the lower animals
not only in the possession of new
sort of intelligence, but also in the ire
mendous extension of that sort of
which he has in common with them.
A fish learns slow few simple
habits. Man learns quickly any infini-
tude of habits that may be highly
complex. Dogs and cats learn more
than the fish, while monkeys learn
more than they. In the number of
things he learns, the complex habits
he can form, the variety of lines along
which he can learn them and in their
permanence when once formed the
monkey jutsiies his conclusion with
man in separate mental genus. =
Chicago Chronicle.