Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial. (Wilmington, Del.) 1878-1928, 1920-02-02
A Professor of
Animal Language

Washington, ID. C., Jan. 30.--As
man who learned 10 converse Will
monkeys aud apes, who confined hirnsel
IN cage in tho African jungle To observ
them, and who sued Photographic
company for hundred thousand dollar
because it published a picture Of n maj
kissing an ape, and alleged that the mar
was himself, Professor r.. l.. Garner, o
tho Smithsonian Institution, who dice
y few days ago, was pretty well known u
the public
or the real nature Of his work very
little was known to laymen and tina
despite the fact that he wrote o couple
Of books differing sharply from most
scientific works in that they are very
interesting and weli-written. DR.. Garner
did not belong To that school OF scientists
who arc interested primarily in the CLASH
feation Of animals, and who spend most
OF their time counting teeth, measuring
! tails, and preparing dead specimens.
| His life Was devoted to n most sympathetic
| study of tho living animals, some Of his
views differed radically from the generally
accepted scientific dogma, and he was
| fond, especially in his younger days, of
/ ridieuling the conservative fathers Of
| science"
DR.. Garner. rs his views arc understood
i by an Interested but unscIcntihc reader
/ of them, believed that the similarity
between man and the other mammals
is good deal closer than has generally
been recognized. OF course, the whole
progress OF science has tended tn show
more and more a anity of all living things.
Man Is by nature 4 great snob, with a
tremendous opinion Of his Own superiority.
So naturally he began BY assuming that
he had M -ha+ -
''lower" animals; that he was a superior
creature Of divine origin. He utterly
overlooked the numerous sIrnilarities
Of structure, habit and function between
himself and the rest OF the mammals
just as some rich and well-placed persons
seem 10 assume that they are of differ
ent order from the rest Of humanity,
despite the manifest superficiality Of
the difference.
Darwin gave jolt 20 this compIacent
view by his theory of evolution which
ascribed to man descent from apes and
monkeys. Even when. evolution had
become theory generally accepted By
scientists and by much OF the public, il
WAS still usual TO refer 70 the dumb
anImals' and TO debate At great length
the question Can a dog Think" usually
answering it in the negative.
DR.. Garner asserted that the animals
are manifestly not dumb. that they COM
munisate with each other and also that
they think just as we do. He asserted
that their means of oppression are entirely
adequate TO their capacity Tor thought,
and that their thinking and talking differ
only IN degree OF development and not
IN kind from the thinking and talking of
humans He argued verv cogently that
the fact that dog will learn to under
stand his name and a good many different
orders shows that he has fundamental /.
comprehension OF language The dog /
learns to understand part of our LAM
guage, so that we can communicate ideas +
to him. We do not learn ANYTHING of /
his language so that he has great difficulty +
In communicating with us. Anyone who /
has owned dog knows that he often
tries hard to make himself understood. +
MONKEY LANGUAGE DEVELOPED.
Among monkeys DIR. Garner found
language so well developed that he could
learn to converse with them, and it was
among them that he found the most
example of logical thinking.
His interest in the simians began one day
when he was walking in geological park
md paused before an enclosure containing
| big mandrill Ia kind of ape) and a
lumber of small monkeys The en-
closure consisted of two compartments
by small opening. The
monkeys We're evidently much afraid of
he mandrill who kept pacing back
md forth between the two compart-
nents. The monkeys in one compart-
nent would always shout to those in the /.
ther compartment what the mandrill
vas doing. DIR. Garner quickly became H
onvinced that they used quite varied
anguage In doing this After little he H
ound that he could himself tell what the H
aandriH was doing by listening to the H
xcited remarks of the MONKEYS II
After this he spent great deal OF time II
J geological parks studying the language II
simians, He learned to initiate their II
arious sounds with great accuracy, and II
0 also reproduced these on the graphic II
hone. lie first attracted wide atten- II
on by playing a graphonhone record II
lade by female monkey before her II
late. The male monkey answered her HI
marks at great length looked all over III
le cage for her, and even put his arm in HI
he meganhone of the machine to see il III
he was inside oft III
One OF the first monkeY-words that DIR | HI
amer learned was that meaning drink III
c found that by repeating this sound be- III
re a monkey he could induce it to pick III
p the saucer in which it was given milk III
: water, and bring it to the front of the III
ige. Ill
DIR. Gamers early work encountered NJ
ore ridicule than recognition, but he VI
as finally provided with funds by friends
no were interested in his theories. so | III
at he was able to 90 to Africa and study | III
e apes aud monkeys in wild state. III
his became his life work. He spent III
lrty years In the French Congo and IN III