THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



OCTOBER, 1834. 



ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. 



Art. I. Thoughts on the Question, Why cannot Animals speak 

 the Language of Man ? By J. J. 



A QUERY to this purport is given in I. 299., and I have not 

 observed a reply to it in any subsequent volume. In order to 

 state the several points of the question fully and explicitly, it 

 may be proper to repeat the words of the querist. " Why," 

 he observes, " beasts do not speak the language of man, is 

 not the question I would propose ; but why (as is evident) 

 they cannot? Whether it is owing, to use a musical phrase, 

 to their want of ear ; whether, to use a philosophical one, it 

 results from their want of understanding ; or whether, as I 

 am apt to think, it arises from the want of a proper conform- 

 ation of the organs most necessary in speaking ? " 



It appears to me, from the mode in which this interrogatory 

 is expressed, that the writer is of the class of thinkers who 

 deny to all animals the possession of attributes, or faculties, 

 with which many of them are unquestionably endowed. It 

 might be easily proved that the higher orders of the animal 

 kingdom possess, and some of them in an eminent degree, 

 faculties which they are here said to " want." " Want of 

 ear " is an expression vague and obscure enough when applied 

 to animals ; but if it mean, as I presume it does, the want of 

 a capability of distinguishing variations, or differences of sound, 

 it is manifestly false in its application to animals. Were all 

 animals unable to distinguish the difference between one sound 

 and another, how could they ever be taught to comprehend 

 the meanings of various articulate sounds? to understand, 

 partially, the language of man ? How could they be subjected 

 to the purposes of domestication ? and of what use, indeed, 

 would their ears be to them ? How could a dog know his 



Vol. VII. — No. 42. ii 



