the 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



AUGUST, 1876. 



YOICE IN MAN AND IN ANIMALS. 1 



Bt Emile blanchard, 



OF THE PAKIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 I. 



MAN possesses language, and makes large use of it, while, on the 

 other hand, not even the most intelligent animals have the 

 power of designating objects, or of translating sensations into articu- 

 late speech. In this respect the distinction between man and beast 

 is very marked. It has at all times been cited as an evidence of man's 

 exceptional place in Nature. The physiologist, however, discovers an 

 articulate voice in many animals. Some mammals give utterance to 

 vowels and consonants, but the result is only one syllable repeated 

 without variation. Birds, better gifted than the mammals, can sing, 

 and also possess a brief vocabulary : the goldfinch pronounces several 

 words, which it repeats again and again in moments of pleasure. It 

 lias a word to express its ill-humor, as also a word for calling atten- 

 tion. In all this we see faint traces of language, notable witnesses of 

 the unity of a phenomenon the gradations of which are wanting. 



Some animals live in society, others travel in flocks. In such ag- 

 gregations there is plainly developed a sort of language adapted for 

 establishing concert of action among the individuals. In building 

 their lodges, how could beavers make a regular division of labor, and 

 so perfectly coordinate their work, if they were unable to understand 

 one another? The marmot, acting as a sentinel, could not warn its 

 fellows of the approach of danger, if it did not possess the power of 

 giving a signal, the meaning of which they understood. When swal- 

 lows are about to migrate, some of them appear to be concerned 

 about the performance of the periodical voyage some time before the 

 rest: they flock together and utter their call; they flit hither and 



1 Translated from the French by J. Fitzgerald, A. M. 

 vol. ix. 25 



