April 3, 1885.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE ♦ 



289 



sixty and seventv- degrees is mniniained at all times, and the 

 unimal is as carefully protected from all draughts as an invalid 

 person. In his native climate of Liberia cold drauglits are un- 

 known, and when exposed to thorn ilr. Cn^wloy pays the penalty 

 with a sore-throat or a cold in the head. At uijjht a heavy blanket 

 is placed in his cage, and when the weather is extremely cold he 

 wraps himself up in it, bnt at other times uses it as a mattress. 

 ■' Jake," a robust Park official, attends to him regularly, and the 

 strongest attachment exists between them. 



In personal appearance, Mr. Crowley has nothing delicate abont 

 him. He came to Central Park last Jane, and has now entered on 

 kis third year, growing rapidly and gaining over a pound a month ; 

 if he lives several years longer, he will probably attain a height of 

 Sve feet. At present he is a trifle over two feet high and weighs 

 twenty-six pounds. His hair is parted in the middle, and banged 

 on his forehead; his body is covered heavily with hair and has no 

 tail. When he stands upright, Mr. Crowley presents fully as civi- 

 Ksed an appearance as the man in a heavy fur coat who crowds 

 himself in a narrow place in the street car. His hands aie shrivelled 

 and brown, but his nails are delicately tinted and well-shaped, 

 though evidently not looked after by a manicure, and his feet have 

 characteristics resembling those in human feet, except that they 

 Are more flexible, and he uses them as readily as he does hia hands. 

 "Jake," said Mr. Conklin, "we will have lunch, if it is Mr. 

 Crowley's time." " Jake " placed some bananas on a low table, 

 and then a plate, cup and saucer, and knife and fork. After setting 

 ont an infant's chair with a cushion in it, he led by the hand the 

 chimpanzee, who had been watching him with apparent satisfac- 

 tion. Mr. Crowley sprang quickly into the chair, and waited 

 patiently while " Jake " pushed him up to the table, and placed a 

 pink shawl on his shoulder. 



" Will you have a banana, old boy ? " asked " Jake." 

 Mr. Crowley passed over his plate, and received one that had 

 been peeled for him. He picked up his knife and fork carefully, 

 and cut a large piece from the fruit and transferred it on the fork 

 to his mouth. 



"Too much," said "Jake," disapprovingly; "don't be greedy 

 Crowley." 



Mr. Crowley cut the slices of the fruit into smaller pieces, and 

 ate them deliberately. When " Jake " proposed a glass of milk, he 

 nodded his head with a pleased grin, sipped the milk with a tea- 

 spoon, and then, lifting the cup to his mouth, drank a portion of 

 it. His napkin is embroidered with the name " Remus Crowley," 

 and after drinking, the chimpanzee wiped his broad month and chin 

 with it fastidiously. But, having finished his meal, he held ont his 

 plate for more, and when refused, protruded his lower lip and cried 

 disconsolately. Then he shook hands with the visitors, examined 

 their finger-rings and pockets cnrionsly, and when returned to his 

 cage with reluctance, made faces at all present, and occasionally 

 threw a handfid of sawdust at them, and danced boisterously. 



" He is good-nattired, and as playful as a child," said Mr. Conklin, 

 " not malicious, but full of mischief, and understands everything 

 that goes on around him. In fact, he often reminds me of a deaf 

 and dnmb child, or an idiot." 



" Does he make any sound indicating speech ? " 

 " No ; he utters peculiar cries, and moves his lips at times as a 

 person would in talking. He shows clearly the different emotions 

 of anger, pain, and grief; sulks when offended, and laughs when 

 pleased. My belief in evolution 'has increased since I have had 

 him under my care. I have seen many human beings less intelli- 

 gent, and I believe that with careful selection for breeding there is 

 strong possibility that the race might be developed and taught to 

 speak. It certainly would be an interesting experiment, and would 

 probably require several generations." 



" Are there any other chimpanzees in the country ? " 

 " There is a female in Philadelphia, but she has not received the 

 attention which has been given Mr. Crowley, and she si's sulkily 

 and silent all day long. They are fierce and strong, and live forty 

 years in their native climate, bnt have always died after a few 

 years when taken to other countries. We have been afraid that 

 Crowley would get a cold that would result in pneumonia, but so 

 far he has done well, and we hope now that he may be acclimatized. 

 If both of them continue to thrive, possibly we may be able to bring 

 about an engagement, and tiltimately a wedding, between Mr. 

 Crowley and the young woman in Philadelphia. I don't think there 

 would be anybody to forbid the banns if both parties were willing. 

 Crowley is fond of company, and does not like to be left alone. He 

 amuses himself by swinging and practising all sorts of athletic 

 exercises that would make a gymnast envy his agility and strength. 

 We give him several ten-pin balls at times, and he never tires of 

 rolling them and making a terrible clatter. Recently, a party of 

 gentlemen met in my oSice to organise a Forestry Society. Crowley 

 was immensely taken with the idea, and loudly applauded every 

 speech." 



" Let Knowledge grow from more to more."— Alfred TENUYgon. 



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 letters not appear. 



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 AND directed ENVELOPE BE ENCLOSED. 



THE DOCTRINK OF EVOLUTION. 



[1654] — Sir John Lubbock's statement I commend to the Dar- 

 winians : — " The forms of leaves do not depend on any iuheritant 

 tendency, but to (sic) the structure and organism, the habits and 

 requirements of the plant." Exactly, and to these requirements 1 

 would attribute, e.g., the eye and teeth (beauty as well as use), and 

 not to selection, natural or sexual. Take the case of teeth : they 

 must be to eat ; they must bo of bone, for hardness. Thus we have 

 use and beauty, beauty, indeed, being the sine qn'i noii of use, as, 

 e.g., in the case of clouds and flowers. But the case of the 

 governor nerves is most striking. L'tterly improbable that selec- 

 tion {id est, the seizing on of haphazard variation) could have 

 caused the marvellous contrivance of the nerves from the right 

 brain passing through the subtle foramen (?) , to the left side of the 

 body, and the nerves from the right brain, rice vcrsi, intercrossing. 

 Believe me, there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of in 

 Selection Philosophy! It is "the Cause, the Cause, my soul" — 

 whatever that Cause may be. Commentator. _ 



P.S. — Shakespeare and Handel were exceptions to the "rule" 

 that men of genius are little ; though, where they are so, the 

 exjilanation is probably Compensation — small body, big brain; 

 yet the exceptions throw doubt on this. Were Newton and Darwin 

 little men ? 



LEFT-HAXDEDNESS. 



[1655]— In your article on " Our Two Brains," in No. 177 of 

 K.N'OWLEDGE, you state that Dr. Brown Sequard "points out that 

 very few left-handed persons have learned to write with the left 

 hand, and those who can .... do not write nearly so well with it 

 as with the right." I knew an army surgeon who had lost hia right 

 hand, and he wrote very easily with his left, but then he sloped his 

 letters in the opposite direction to what we do— namely, from left 

 to right. I had once the care of a little boy born without a right 

 arm, and I taught him to slope his letters in this way — that is, from 

 left to right— and he was getting on very well, but his mother 

 objected to this style of writing, and so it was stopped. The 

 reason why persons do not write so well with their left hand is on 

 this account : That in writing with the left hand the whole direction 

 should be reversed in order to bring it into conformity with right- 

 hand caligraphy— viz., they should begin their lines on the right 

 side of the page, writing from right to left, and slope their letters 

 from left to right. In this manner, I think, the writing with the 

 left would be quite as easy as with the right ; but, of course, this is 

 inadmissible, and they do not do it. At the same time, should my 

 statement prove true, if would show that the powers of the two 

 brains are equal so far as these relate to right and left-handedness. 



J. E. S. 



VIVISECTION. 



[1656] — In your second paragraph of "Editorial Gossip," at 

 p. 243, yon are, I think, a little unfair to those who oppose cruelty 

 to animals in the shape of unlimited physiological research. Those 

 who support it, whether by magazine articles or otherwise, invari- 

 ably shirk the real point of the matter, and speak of vivisection as 

 it it really was— as yon put it—" merely a matter of the temporary 

 suffering " of half-a-dozen rabbits or guinea-pigs, and that with 

 every precaution as to anaesthetics. If this was the simple truth. 



