The Speech of MonkeysGarner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Science
The Speech of Monkeys
Garner, R. L. (Richard Lynch)
Monkeys; Sound production by animals; Speech
As chemical formulas differ from each other without losing the identity
of their elements which constitute them, so animal organisms and plant
forms differ as the spheres of life to which they are assigned differ.
It is possible that chemical affinity may be the germ from which all
language springs, as the chemical elements are the materials from which
all compounds are built up. The vitalisation of matter itself, and the
arrangement of the ultimate particles which constitute a living body,
are the work of the vital force in a polarised condition. This will
account, in a measure, for all the individuals of one type selecting one
mode of expression, as they select or conform to one physical outline.
In every rank of life there seems to be some intuitive mode of
expression which suggest itself to all the individuals of that kind when
they desire, under the same conditions, to express the same thing. The
exceptions to this law of expression increase in number as we rise in
the scale of life, and the means of expression increase and widen and
the faculty of thought enlarges. The laws of chemical affinity are
rigid and uncompromising, and there are but few exceptions in them, and
only marked changes of condition can modify the results. As we ascend
even in the mineral kingdom to the higher compounds we find a wider
range of variation; and as we continue our ascent through the vegetable
world, we find the same, and on through animals to the highest type. In
the lower planes types are more strictly adhered to, habits and food
more rigidly observed, while among the highest types of cultivated
plants we find a great diversity of fruit and bloom, the capability of
transplanting and the creation of new species, without losing the
generic identity of the plant or even making it questionable. In the
animal kingdom the same law is complied with; and step by step as we
ascend the same types show greater and greater diversity, until we reach
man--the climax of all life, and within his genus, variation knows no
bound.
[Sidenote: CONCLUSION]
In conclusion, I may say that man as he now is has the faculty of
speech. It is reasonable to believe that he has always had this faculty
since he was man. If there has ever been a time in the history of his
organism when he acquired his being from some progenitor which was not
man, he acquired at the same time the faculty of speech, and that
progenitor did not impart a thing which he did not have. While it is
true that speech, as I have used it, is confined to vocal sounds, other
modes of expression have preceded it, and such has been a common faculty
inherent through all forms and planes of life. I am aware that two
ingredients combined may make a compound unlike either one, and such may
be the case with speech, but the elements which constitute the compound
must have been for ever present.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE SPEECH AND REASON OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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