The Speech of MonkeysGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
The Speech of Monkeys
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Monkeys; Sound production by animals; Speech
In my efforts to ascertain their mathematical skill, I would take in
one hand a little platter containing one nut, or one small bit of
something to eat, such as a piece of apple or carrot cut into a small
cube. In the other hand I held a small platter, with two or three such
articles of the same size and colour, and holding them just out of reach
of the monkey and changing them from hand to hand, I observed that the
monkey would try to reach the one containing the greater number. He
readily discerned which platter contained one and which contained two or
three pieces. I was long in doubt whether he distinguished by number or
by quantity, and my belief was that it was by quantity only. I first
determined that he could tell singular from plural, by making the one
piece larger and sometimes of a different shape, and from his choice of
these I quite satisfied my own mind that he could distinguish by number.
[Sidenote: THE TEST WITH MARBLES] I next set out to find how far in
numerals his acquirements reached, and after a great number of
indecisive trials I fell upon this simple plan: I took a little square
wooden box and made a hole in one side just large enough for the monkey
to withdraw his hand with a marble in it. I took three marbles of the
same size and colour, and gave them to the monkey to play with. After a
time I put the marbles in a box and allowed him to take them out, which
he could do by taking out only one at a time. I repeated this several
times, so as to impress his mind with the number of marbles in the box.
I then concealed one of the marbles and returned two to the box. On
taking them out, he evidently missed the absent one, felt in the box,
arose, and looked around where he had been sitting. Then he would put
his hand into the box again and look at me; but failing to find it, he
became reconciled, and began to play with the two. When he had become
content with the two, I abstracted one of them, and when he failed to
find it he began to search for it, and seemed quite unwilling to proceed
without it. He would put the one back into the box and take it out
again, as if in hope that it might find the other. I helped him to look
for the missing marbles, and, of course, soon found them. When he
learned that I could find the lost marbles, he would appeal to me as
soon as he missed them, and in several instances he would take his
little black fingers and open my lips to see if I had concealed them in
my mouth, the place where all monkeys conceal what they wish to keep in
safety from other monkeys, who never venture to put their fingers into
one another's mouth, and when any article is once lodged in a monkey's
mouth it is safe from the reach of all the tribe. I repeated this until
I felt quite sure of the ability of my subject to count three, and I
then increased the number of marbles to four. When I would abstract one
of them, sometimes he seemed to miss it, or at least to be in doubt, but
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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