112 Chapter VI. 



It is true that not only the higher but likewise many 

 lower animals, and especially insects which live in colo- 

 nies, have something that can be compared to human 

 speech. But this is not the place to discuss the nonsense 

 that has been written in recent times about the pretend- 

 ed language of animals in pseudo-scientific circles of 

 America 1 and Europe. Moreover it would be unjust 

 to Mr. Emery, to place him on a level with such psy- 

 chologists as Hosea Ballon, I. Bregenzer and R. L. Gar- 

 ner. Consequently we may well pass on to the third 

 point of Emery's argumentation. 



He agrees that the analogon of human speech which 

 is found in animals, is altogether different from the lan- 

 guage of man. The latter is the result of a conscious, 

 intelligent combination of certain sounds with certain 

 general concepts and judgments. On the other hand, 

 Emery finds it "difficult to determine" in how far the 

 use of inarticulate sounds depends on an unconscious 

 impulse in animals, and in how far it depends on a 

 rational intention. The latter seems to him "not so very 

 improbable," at least in some cases. However, such 

 vague unsubstantiated conjectures cannot claim any 

 consideration in a critical discussion of psychic life. 

 Whatsoever proofs he alleges, do not at all bear on his 



*) We must add a note on a book published some years ago in 

 America by R. L. Garner on "The Speech of Monkeys." Mistaking 

 the inarticulate chattering of monkeys for a true language by which 

 they manifest and communicate their sensitive feelings, poor Mr. 

 Garner dreamt that he could prove the existence of monkey "speech," 

 and possibly interpret it. All German critics who have taken notice of 

 Mr. Garner's book in scientific reviews, concur in the well-founded re- 

 proach that the author has no idea of the rules of scientific psychology, 

 and is utterly devoid of critical judgment. Even W. Marshall, who 

 translated the book into German, was compelled to confess that the au- 

 thor suffers from an exuberant imagination. 



