Physical Evolution of Man 587 



language is wholly effected hy action of the hand and arm. Such 

 an initial or primitive mode of communication then would 

 not have been possible till man had become fairly erect, and 

 actively used his arms for the many purposes of which we 

 have already sketched a few. 



But, in view of the studies of Forel, Wheeler, Field, and 

 others, few will now deny that ants have what might be called 

 a mute antennal language, while many other animals express 

 their ideas by some gesture or simple contact action. Sim- 

 ilarly deaf-mutes or blind persons can converse* by the fingers 

 almost as quickly as speakers beside them. 



Clearly, therefore, if the brain has so evolved as to form per- 

 cepts, these can, and may, be expressed or explained by a 

 variety of organs, not necessarily by the mouth parts. Further 

 Romanes (755; 123) says: "The higher animals unquestionably 

 do understand the meanings of words; idiots too low in the 

 scale themselves to speak are in the same position; and infants 

 learn the significance of many articulate sounds long before 

 they begin themselves to utter them." His succeeding illus- 

 trative statements are also apt, particularly the following: 

 "The most remarkable display of the power to understand the 

 meaning of words on the part of a brute, which has happened 

 to fall under my own observation, is that which many other 

 English naturalists must have noticed in the case of the chim- 

 panzee now in the Zoological Gardens. This ape has learned 

 from her keeper the meanings of so many words and phrases 

 that in this respect she resembles a child shortly before it 

 begins to speak. Moreover, it is not only particular words 

 and phrases which she has thus learned to understand; she 

 understands to a large extent, the combination of these words 

 and phrases in sentences, so that the keeper is able to explain 

 to the animal what it is that he requests her to do." 



Not only, therefore, may animals, near to man in ]>hysical 

 organization, originate concepts, they can understand these 



* May it not be that the very word converse, "a turning together," may have 

 originated from the turning or twisting in company of the fingers amongst 

 rude primitive nations, who handed down the idea to more recent language 

 builders? 



