Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-01-25
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

pre-human past come children speak
| ing strange tongues and sleeping, walk
| ing, climbing and playing after the
manner of their animal ancestors.
One of the strangest chapters IN the
story of human evolution has just been
| written by DR.. Ales Hrdlicka, curator
of physical anthropology at the Ma
| tional Museum, starting from chance
observations of children walking on all
fours in animal fashion. Following this
clue with extensive inquiries all over
| the world, DR.. Hrdlicka came into a
practically untouched scientific field
| that of survivals of behavior extending
to many activities of the child life.
There was evidence that frequently
children come into the world with
structural peculiarities which are like
bridges over the long ages from mans
pre-human ancestry. reaching back IN
some cases to the far days when ver-
tebrates were emerging from the ocean.
Even independent of these structural
inheritances, DR.. Hrdlicka shows, in
the first year or two children may de-
velop peculiar behaviors with quadru-
ped-like character which represent an
Gent pre-human habits and attitudes.
Asks Childhood Records.
The material has convinced DR..
Hrdlicka that he had tapped field OF
infinite possibilities, and he is making
an appeal to all persons who observe
strange behavior in children or remem-
Der it from their own childhood to send
him exact records of it.
The first extensive chapter OF this
strange story has just been published
by Dr. Hrdlicka in volume issued by
the McGraw-Hill Co. of New York.
Children with these animal-like behav-
tours. he finds are not degenerates or
interiors, but normal and often supe-
rior children. It is probable, he holds,
that every human being has some trait
which may or may not have appeared
in his behavior, but what Is of the
character Of q survival. When observed
scientifically, he says. these are living
proofs of mans animal ancestry and OF
his evolution.
Among the strangest phenomena
found by DR.. Hrdlicka are peculiarities
of speech which appear to connect with
pre-human practices. Some children
talk in a language Of their own, APP
parentlv full of meaning to them, but
unintelligibla to anybody else. Still
others try to express their thoughts or
emotions in distinctly animal sounds,
and others will initiate and use the
sound made by various animals.
Develops Language Of Own.
One mother reported: MY girl de-
veioped a language of her own of which
I understood only few words. When
I asked her to repeat she always re-
peated the same sounds. At 2la years
she could put few words into sentences.
At years and months she has a
vocabulary much beyond her years"
Another little girl at about her six
tenth month started to jabber fast,
long stories with all the intonations OF
conversation yet no ineligible word.
Shortly after she was l8 months old
she bcgan to talk and her progress was
nothing short of remarkable" A boy,
Is months old, says words when he
wants to, but insists on making his
wants known by different kinds of
squealing"' Another, while shaking OBJ
jects with a rhythmical motion, often
emits peculiar cries rather like a mon
key in cage"
Unconscious and Semi-conscious imi-
tation of animals by small children, DR..
Hrdlicka holds, is a still very imperfect,
unStudied field. One little girl of his
series seemed Ito have an obsession to
be dog and when she has played by
herself has acted out a complete dog
party. She initiated the banks of five
dogs perfectly. Dogs to her were real
folks" One boy, Is months old, could
bend at the waist and, keeping the
knees stiff, ick the contents of a dish
on The floor" His mother thought he
was initiating the puppy, las it was the
dogs dish" A visitor wrote of 4-year-
old boy: j noticed him lying in a
shallow mud hole beside a dog and a
pig. AS he heard me he reused him.
self raised himself on hands and knees,
and to my CONSERVATION barked at me
in perfect imitation of the racket the
dog was putting up: after which he
grunted like the pig"
Animal Manifestation.
Here" DR.. Hrdlicka says, I'VE have
approached phenomena which. though
reused more or less accidentally and
realized through imitation, seem to have
deeper, far-away foundation. Strong
contributing causes of such imitation
are isolation Of the child from human
playmates and a close association with
animal-like toys and with pet animals"
Other manifestations of children,
DR.. Hrdlicka says, connect plainly
with animal behavior, particularly
such as found in the apes" A girl in
her second year punches all coverings
over her head, tucks bright colored
rags under her chin and keeps them
there, and has a passion for boarding
stones, making a cache of them An
other In her ninth month delighted to
drag torn papers, cushions and shawls
into a little cage formed by a gate-leg
table. She scratches gently on her
pillow as she is going to sleep. If she
wakes up in the night I hear this
gentle scratching until she goes to
sleep again" A boy was so quick at
jumping that he could catch birds that
way. Another had tendency, when
playing with any object, to get up on
all fours and circle around it, moving
his hands hardly at all bit making the
circle entirely with his feet Another
always smelled of any object given him
until he was IA years old Another
liked TO curl his legs around supports
when sitting. Another used to throw
himself out of chairs with hands out
seen repeatedly raising himself up from
| the floor, unaided by any support,
much as / have seen bears do, looking
about, swaying. and then dropping back
on all fours TO travel again"
Swimming Motions.
| Parents commonly compared such
! children with bears. dogs or monkeys.
A boy rolls back to sit up just like a
! bear cub Another kicks like a dog
! with his feet" And many are to the
mother my little doggie, my little
monkey"
Perhaps the strangest of all is the
development by some infants OF swim
ming motions which phenomenon, If
it is a throwback, may go back to very
ancient days OF life. In general, DR..
Hrdlicka says. the natural swimming
motion has been lost in man. But one
baby, few weeks old, "if placed on his
stomach in the bath tub moved arms
and legs in perfectly swimming man.
ner and enjoyed 1t so much that he
screamed when taken out. The neigh
borS used to come in and watch him. >
Another "has been Hopping along on
her tummy since the age of five
months. Her first crawling motion was
ka,- eA1 vaA elx flaS