Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1920-02-02

monkeys and apes, who confined
himself in q cage in an African
Jungle to observe them. and who
sued a photograph company for
hundred thousand dollars because
it published a picture Of a man
kissing an ape and alleged that the
man was himself. Professor r. l..
Garner Of the Smithsonian Institu-
ton, who died a few days ago, was
pretty well known to the public.
OF the real nature Of his work
very little was known to laypen,
and despite the fact that he wrote
a couple Of books differing sharply
from most scientific works in that
they are very interesting and we'll
written. DR.. Garner did not belong
to that school of scientists who are
interested primarily in the CLASH
fication Of animals and who spend
most of their time counting teeth.
measuring tails and preparing dead
specimens. His life was devoted
to most sympathetic study Of the
living animals. some of his views
differed radically from the general
ly accepted scietific dogma, and he
was fond, especially in his younger
days, Of ridiculing the conservative
fathers of science"
DR.. Garner, as hi, views are un-
derstood by an interested but un-
scientific reader of them, believes
that the similarity between man
and the other animals is a good
deal closer than has generally
been recognized. OF course, the
whole progress of science has
tended to show more and more a
unity of all living things. Man is
by nature great snob, with ire
mendous opinion of his superiority
So naturally he began by assuming
| that he had no relation whatever
with the lower" animals; that he
was superior creature of divine
origin. He utterly overlooked the
numerous similarities of structure
habit and function between him
| self and the rest of the mammals
just as some rich and well-placed
| persons seem to assume that they
are Of a different order from the
rest of humanity, despite the mani.
fest superficiaHty of the difference
! Darwin gave a jolt to this com.
placent view by his theory of evo.
luton which ascribed to man a de.
scent from apes and monkeys
Even when evolution had become q
theory generally accepted by sci.
entists and by much of the public
it was still usual to refer to the
dumb animals" and to debate a,
great length the question, Can 8
dog Think" usually answered il
the negative.
DR.. Garner asserted that the an
imals are manifestly not dumb
that they communicate with eacf
other, and also that they think jus
as we do. He asserted that thei,
means of expression are entirely
adequate TO their capacity fol
thought, and that their, thinking ans
talking differ only in degree of de
velopment and not in kind from thu
thinking and talking of humans
He argued very cogently that thu
fact that a dog will learn to un
derstand his name and a good man,
I different orders shows that he ha.
i fundamental comprehension O
language, SO that we can communi
cate ideas to him. We do not learI
anything Of his language, so tina
| he has great difficulty in communi
eating with us. Anyone who ha.
owned dog knows that he ofte,
tries hard to make himself under
stood.
Among monkeys DR.. Garner foun,
language so we'll developed that h,
could learn to converse with them
and it was among them that h,
found the most convincing exam
pies Of logical thinking. His in
terest in the simians began one da,
when he was walking in zoologi
cak park and paused before an en-
closure containing a big mandril
"a kind Of ape) and a number o
small monkeys. The enclosure con
sisted Of two compartments con
nected by a small opening. Tn
monkeys were evidently mucl
afraid OF the mandrill, who KEEP
pacing back and forth between tn
two compartments. The monkey
in one compartment would Away