276 TRANSACTIONS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. ° - [WoLstig 
places. Professor Hovelacque the distinguished representative of lin- 
guistic science in France, after describing the impassable gulf which 
separates the Semitic and Indo-European languages, adds that the case 
of these languages is the case of a considerable number of linguistic 
systems and then says: “The consequence of this fact is important. If, 
as we have shown, the faculty of articulate speech is the proper and sole 
characteristic of man, and if the different linguistic systems which we 
know are irreducible, they must have come into existence separately, in 
regions entirely distinct. It follows that the precursor of man, the first 
to acquire the faculty of articulate language, has gained this faculty in 
different places at the same time, and has thus given birth to many hu- 
man races originally distinct.” The divisions of race into which the 
speechless descendants of these precursors of primitive man had separ- 
ated before they acquired the faculty of language are laid down by Dr. 
Frederick Miiller. The theory of a speechless race of human precursors 
or of human beings like ourselves without the faculty of speech raises 
difficulties greater than those which it is intended to remove. So far 
as we have been able to learn, primitive man began life with a voice. 
His vocal organs may not have been very flexible, but we may assume 
that they were sufficient to enable him to articulate words expressing 
his needs. Oral utterance was the form of expression used by primitive 
man, based upon his physical structure, intellectual endowments and 
social instincts. If he had been without a voice some other method of 
expression would have been found as in the case of deaf-mutes, suffici- 
ently illustrated in the persons of Laura Bridgman and Helen Keller. 
There was a time when man was destitute of language, but possessed 
the faculty of speech, and were man again to be so situated that he had 
no language, he would recreate language, society and arts, and develop 
religion. 
Gesture-language was one of the forms of speech of early man, coex- 
istent with spoken language. It is a very expressive method of com- 
munication between persons who speak the same language aiding them 
in emphasizing and making clear their words and phrases, and is a use- 
ful form of speech for those who speak different languages. Primitive. 
man would naturally and unconsciously use this as an aid to the simple 
language which he spoke. Drummond in his Ascent of Man suggested 
that this was the earliest form of speech, preceding spoken language, 
and sound-speech arose from a necessity of communication at a distance, 
the sound reaching farther than the sign, and being independent of 
light. Again it is said that speech is the product of a social state al- 
ready considerably advanced, and the sounds being at first simply utter- 
