24 
irritation by muscular action during articulation. A recent discovery 
in this direction affords interesting evidence of progressive change 
in the articulating organs of the human race. A large number of fully 
adult skulls, some of quite aged individuals, were disinterred from the 
ancient cities of Southern Arizona by the ‘“‘ Hemmenway Expedition.” 
In no case were the three small cartilages forming the arch of the 
hyoid ossified in these neolithic crania. A similar feature was ob- 
served to be presented by mummies from the ancient Ancon cemetery 
of Peru. Dr. Wortman, who made this discovery, is convinced that 
it is a modification directly resulting from the fact that the native 
languages of America are pronounced with little effort on the part of 
the speaker. An Indian, it is said, can talk for hours at a stretch 
without being fatigued, the tones are restrained and not produced as 
withus. Hence, it is argued, this retention of the cartilaginous condi- 
tion of the central portions of the hyoid arch throughout life. 
One of the most important muscles connected with articulation is 
that which rises from the hyoid, passes under the tongue, and is 
attached to an eminence situated on the lower jaws at the point of their 
union. This ridge, called the genial tubercle, is not developed in 
monkeys nor in anthropoid apes. Mortillet and other writers have 
maintained that its absence in the lower human jaws of fossil men of 
the “river drift” epoch found at La Naulette and Schipka favoured 
the hypothesis of the former existence of a race of “speechless men,” 
to whichHoeckel gave the specific designation of Homo alalus, assuming 
that like their collaterals, the anthropoid apes, they lacked the power of 
articulation. But scientists do not all welcome the concept of “ speech- 
less man” with equal enthusiasm.* It is obvious, however, that the 
ower of articulation i: progressively acquired. It commences in the 
child shortly after the union and ossification of the two rami of the 
lower jaw, which takes place generally a year after birth, and developes 
more or less rapidly with the mental growth. Many savage tribes 
never completely attain a full articulation. The confusion between the 
consonants, so frequent a characteristic of the lower forms of language 
Max Muller admits, reminds one of the lack of articulation among the 
lower animals. Liquids like 7 and r are frequently interchangeable. 
In many Polynesian dialects the natives either lack, or have lost, the 
power of distinguishing between them. The gutturals / and ¢ cannot 
be produced at the beginning of a word ; hence the Tahitans called 
Captain Cook Captain Tuke, just as an English four-year-old child 
might do. Nor can they pronounce final consonants, and would call 
cab “taba,” in the same way in which they Polynesianised the 
English name of book into buka buka, forming the plural 
like children by reduplication, when those articles were in- 
troduced to them by the Missionaries. The consonants 7 and / 
are likewise interchangeable by many South African tribes, and among 
the Dravidian races of India. Many adult English persons fail to pro- 
nounce 7 rightly. “H,” produced with much effort, and often mis- 
placed with great care, is still badly used amongst us and v substituted 
* The weakness of the morphological evidence at present forthcoming does 
not affect the logical postulate. 
