The Bon Homme County independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1904-1913, 1910-01-06
MONKEYS NOTHING
BUT FOUR-FLUSHERS
Conclusion in Effect Reached
by a Professor Who Has
Been Studying Them.


Washington Special to New York
World: Instructive imitation is all the
monkey has. ~Inferential imitation Is
not among his mental equipment.
Physiologically he liz closely related TO
the greatest minds the world has ever
known, but that Is where the wise man
stops in his drawing Of parallels. Such
are the conclusions of Professor w. L.
Sheperd of George Washington univer-
sity. He has had a dozen assorted
monkeys Gagged in the laboratory of the
university for months past trying to
get from any or all OF them what a
layman woul designate a CLEAN or In
~telligence.
These little copies of The human be-
ing were invited to do dozens OF stunts
such as trained animals are taught, but
the professor made no effort to compel
them to learn them. He simply made
conditions such that II they had had
any reasoning power they would have
been able to figure out a way OF do
ing the desired stunts without any fur
Their assistance from him. But not one.
showed what to the professor would be
evidence of the reasoning power. Not
one showed capacity to watch the pro-
fessor do a certain thing and then do 1t
himself because he liked the result.
A Stupid Lot.
Not one of them, for Instance was
able to trip the lever that released a
peanut, although the professor showed
them often how he did 1t. All. how
ever, held forth dirty avs begging
for the peanuts. Not one even made
what the sharps that study mental
phenomena call a trial In error. Alto
gether they were abou as stupid q lot
as can we'll be imagined. But because
the professor did not get such results
a are claimed by Haggerty, Hobhaus
n others, he Is not prepared to say
the claims Of the other comparative
psychologists are lot well nde All
he can or does "a is that he could not
obtain the results that came to them.
The professor Is satisfied that the
monkeys have no m or things IN
the sense tina they are able to call up
a picture, place, person or thing. There
is no question but that they are able
to recall having seen a person when
that person stands before them. In
other words, they are the equal OF any
Of the domestic animals In that re-
spect.
He cannot even subscribe to the OAR
win belief that they have imagination
such as Darwin thought dogs have, be-
cause of the evidence before him that
dogs dream in much the way that hu-
man beings do. In short, the professor
found his class of eleven monkeys a
very disappointing lot. He would like
to have had man-like apes for his ex-
money. He could buy monkeys for
about $100 a dozen, whereas of the
anthropoid apes costs about $3.50, n
h mortality among them Is very
high.
He did not enter upon the expert
ments with a view to establishing a
theory or to dfsprove a theory adj
vanced by another, but simply to find
out for himself the mental capacity or
want of capacity Of the lumenolds
available for his experimental work.
The professor is convinced that when
q monkey scratches his head, very
much as a man does lei he Is per-
picked, 1t is no evidence of thought on
the part of the monkey. His idea is
that 1t is a purely physiological phe-
nomenon, perhaps u to the similarity
OF the construction of q man and a
monkey.
Monkeys on Merry-Go-R Rounds.
Another thing the professor feels
warranted In saying Is that the mon
key is not any more initiative than
many other animals. He knows that
monkeys hat a a a merry-go-
round in their Gag that revolves when
they jump on 1t it will continue to
jump on a contrivance of that kind
that is fastened SO that ii will revolve
LII COIlllIlQc ~ 81 NillouSh NHe itO-
tons necessary to make a proper,
merry-go-round perform its proper
functions, just as IL the first trial had
produced results.
In other words. they are not able to
think 1t out that the jumping is a
waste of energy, even II instinct or
something else tells them that con-
trivance looking like that should re-
volve. They know enough to come in
out Of the wet, at least they do come
in out OF II. but there is no evidence
that h coming is ar thing more than
instinct.
Hereafter the c .lents will take
another trend. animals will be
trained as they are in animal shows.
The animal that stands best in his
studies will be killed when II seems
that he has been brought as far for
ward as possible. The brain Of IN
animal will be infinitely studied to de-
termine what changes. If any, in the
~convolutions OF the brain have taken
place. For that purpose comparison
will be made with the brain Of a mon
key that has not been subjected to
the efforts Of the schoolmaster.
Not all the monkeys will be sacri-
fced al the point Of their highest de-
velopment. On the contrary, one or
more of them Will be allowed to go
back as. far as he can toward his nat
urai state, the purpose being to deter
| mine whether the brain changes back
to it's first form after the animal has
been permitted to e. out Of training,
SO to speak.
At present the chief use. In the uni
versity life, is for purposes Of compar-
ison between the simians and the
freshmen. The seniors are awaiting
themselves OF their opportunity. They
are arranging for chess matches be-
tween the monkeys and the freshmen;
also they are trying to arrange for q
comparison between the school work of
the Gagged class in the laboratory and
the young men who have just matricu-
lated.
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