Chap. XIX. MUSICAL POWERS. 333 



all other animals, it is highly probable tliat it utters its 

 musical notes especially during the season of courtship. 



The perception, if not the enjoyment, of musical 

 cadences and of rhythm is probably common to all ani- 

 mals, and no doubt depends on the common physio- 

 logical nature of their nervous systems. Even Crus- 

 taceans, which are not capable of producing any 

 voluntary sound, possess certain auditory hairs, which 

 have been seen to vibrate when the proper musical notes 

 are struck.^^ It is well known that some dogs howl 

 when hearing particular tones. Seals apparently ap- 

 l)reciate music, and their fondness for it " was well 

 '•' known to the ancients, and is often taken advantage 

 of by the hunters at the present day."^° With all 

 those animals, namely insects, amphibians, and birds, 

 the males of which during the season of courtship 

 incessantly produce musical notes or mere rliythmical 

 sounds, we must believe that the females are able to 

 appreciate them, and are thus excited or charmed ; 

 otherwise the incessant efforts of the males and the 

 complex structures olten possessed exclusively by them 

 would be useless. 



With man song is generally admitted to be the basis 

 or origin of instrumental music. As neither the enjoy- 

 ment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are 

 faculties of the least direct use to man in reference 

 to his ordinary habits of life, they must be ranked 

 amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed. 

 They are present, though in a very rude and as it 

 appears almost latent condition, in men of all races, 

 even the most savage ; but so different is the taste of 

 the different races, that our music gives not the least 

 pleasure to savages, and their music is to us hideous 



29 Helmholtz. ' Theorie Phys. de la Miisique,' 18G8, p. 187. 

 3° Mr. E. Brown, in 'Proc. Zoo. Soc' 1868, p. 410. 



