The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1910-01-06
MONKEYS NOTHING
But FouR-FLUSHERS
Conclusion in Effect Reached
by a Professor Who Has ,
Been Studying Them.

Dy b PROFESSOR VINO mas 4
Been Studying Them.
Washington Special to New York
World: Instructive imitation is all the
monkey has. I%nferential imitation is
not among his mental equipment.
Physiologically he IL 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. I.
Sheperd Of George Washington univer-
monkeys Gagged in the laboratory Of the
university for months past trying to
get from any or all of them what a
layman would designate q CLEAN Of In
te~lligence.
These little copies Of the human be-
such as trained arc taught, but
the professor a no effort to ompe
them to learn them. He simply made
conditions such that If they had had
any reasoning power they would nave
been able to figure out a way OF do
ther assistance from him. But not one
showed what to the professor would be
evidence Of the reasoning power. Not
n showed capacity to watch the pro-
fessor do a certain thing and then do it
himself because he liked the result.
A Stupid Lot.
Not one of them, for instance. was
able to trip the lever that released .
peanut, although the professor showed
ever, held forth dirty paws begging
for the peanuts. Not one even made
what the sharps that study mental
phenomena call a trial in error. Alto
gether they were about as stupid a lot
- can we'll be imagined. But because
as are claimed by Haggerty, Hobhaus
and others, he is not prepared to say
the claims Of the other comparative
psychologists are not we'll founded. All
he can or does say Is that he could not
obtain the results that came to them.
The professor is satisfied that the
monkeys ave no memory of things In
the n that they are able to call up
q 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 doge have, be-
cause Of the evidence before him that
ASoS - A4 AAuNA SAA> N0S SAAa AVA
man beings do. In short, the professor
found his class of eleven monkeys q
very disappointing lot. He would like
to have had man-like apes for his ex-
periments, but they cost too much
about 500 a dozen. whereas one Of the
anthropoid apes costs about $3.50, and
the mortality among them is very
high.
He did not enter upon the expert
ments with a view to establishing q
theory or to disprove a theory ad-
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 IL convinced that wien
much az a man does when he is per-
picked, 1t ID m evidence OF thought on
the part Of the monkey. His idea is
tina 1t 10 a purely physiological phe-
nOmenOn, perhaps due to the similarity
of the construction Of a man and q
monkey.
Monkeys on Msrry.Go.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 a a had a merry-go-
round in their cage that revolves when
they jump on 1t 1t will continue to
jump on a contrivance OF that kline
that is fastened SO that 1t will revolve
n continue to 60 through the mo-
tons necessary to make a proper,
merry-go-round perform its proper
functions, just as II 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, wen IL instinct or
something else tells them that con-
trivance looking like that should re-
out of the wet, at east they do come
in out Of 1t, but there is no evidence
that the coming is ar.,thing more than
instinct.
Hereafter the e nents will take
another trend. animals will be
The animal that stands best in his
studies will be killed when 1t seems
that he has been brought as far for
ward as possible. The brain of that
animal will be infinitely studied to de-
termine what changes, If any, in the
place. For that purpose comparison
will be made with h brain Of a mon
key that has not been subjected to
h efforts Of the schoolmaster.
Not all the monkeys will be sacri-
feed at the point OF their highest de-
more OF them will be allowed to go
back as far rs he can toward his nat
ural state, the purpose being to deter
mine whether the brain changes back
to it's first form after the animal has
been permitted to 60 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 availing
themselves Of their opportunity. They
are arranging for chess matches be-
tween the monkeys and the freshmen;
also they are trying to arrange for a
comparison between the schoo work Of
the Gagged class in the laboratory and
h young men who have Just matricu-
lated.
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