VI [ 



PROVISION FOR THE STUDY OF THE PRIMATES, AND ESPECIALLY 

 THE MONKEYS AND ANTHROPOID APES' 



I should neglect an important duty as well as waste an oppor- 

 tunity if in this report I did not call attention to the status cf 

 our knowledge concerning the monkeys and apes and present 

 the urgent need of adequate provision for the comparative 

 study of all of the primates. 



Although for centuries students of nature have been keenly 

 interested in the various primates, the information which has 

 been accumulated is fragmentary and wholly inadequate for 

 generally recognized scientific and practical needs. There is a 

 voluminous literature on many aspects of the organization and 

 lives of the monkeys and apes, but when one searches in it for 

 reasonably connected and complete descriptions of the organisms 

 from any biological angle, one is certain to meet disappointment' 



Concerning their external characteristics we know much; and 

 our classifications, if not satisfactory- to all, are at least emi- 

 nently useful. But when one turns to the morphological sciences 

 of anatomy, histolog>% embryology, and pathology, one dis- 

 covers great gaps, where knowledge might reasonably be ex- 

 pected. Even gross anatomy has much to gain from the care- 

 ful, systematic examination of these organisms. With still 

 greater force this statement applies to the studies of finer struc- 

 tural relations. Little is known concerning the embr^^ological 

 development and life history of certain of the primates, and 

 almost nothing concerning their pathological anatomy. 



Clearly less satisfactory- than our knowledge of structure is 

 the status of information concerning those functional processes 

 which are the special concern of physiolog}^ and pathology. 

 Certain important experimental studies have been made on the 

 nervous system, but rarely indeed have physiologists dealt sys- 

 tematically with the functions of other systems of organs. There 



* Much of the material of this section was published originally in Sciettce (Yerkes, 

 1916). 



