871 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Lam 

 Lan< 



ps 

 guage 



they communicate. Among the ants, per- 

 haps the most social of the lower animals, 

 this power is so perfect that they are not 

 merely endowed with a few general signs, 

 but seem able to convey information upon 

 matters of detail. Sweeping across country 

 in great armies they keep up communica- 

 tion throughout the whole line, and succeed 

 in conveying to one another information as 

 to the easiest routes, the presence of enemies 

 or obstacles, the proximity of food supplies, 

 and even of the numbers required on emer- 

 gencies to leave the main band for any 

 special service. Every one has observed ants 

 stop when they meet one another and ex- 

 change a rapid greeting by means of their 

 waving antennae, and it is possibly through 

 these perplexing organs that definite inter- 

 course between one creature and another 

 first entered the world. The exact nature of 

 the antenna language is not yet fathomed, 

 but the perfection to which it is carried 

 proves that the idea of language generally 

 has existed in Nature from the earliest time. 

 DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 5, p. 157. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



1813. LANGUAGE A SOURCE OF 



MYTH Confusion of Name Leads to Confu- 

 sion of Nature The Bernicle-tree and Its 

 Progeny of Geese. Professor Max Miiller, 

 after discussing various theories of the 

 origin of the barnacle myth [of the produc- 

 tion of geese from barnacles] declares in fa- 

 vor of the idea that confusion of language 

 and alteration of names lie at the root of 

 the error. The learned author of the " Sci- 

 ence of Language " argues that the true bar- 

 nacles were named, properly enough, Ber- 

 naculce, and lays stress on the fact that 

 bernicle geese were first caught in Ireland. 

 That country becomes Hibernia in Latin, 

 and the Irish geese were accordingly named 

 Hibernicce or Hiberniculce. By the omission 

 of the first syllable no uncommon opera- 

 tion for words to undergo we obtain the 

 name Berniculce for the geese, this term be- 

 ing almost synonymous [or rather homony- 

 mous] with the name Bernaculce already ap- 

 plied, as we have seen, to the barnacles. 

 Bernicle-geese and bernicle-shells, confused 

 in name, thus became confused in Nature; 

 and, once started, the ordinary process of 

 growth was sufficient to further intensify 

 and render more realistic the story of the 

 bernicle-tree and its wonderful progeny. 

 WILSON Facts and Fictions of Zoology, p. 8. 

 (Hum., 1882.) 



1814. LANGUAGE BANKS THE 

 GAINS OF INTELLECT Progress Trans- 

 mitted by Speech as Not by Heredity. 

 When it is asked, What brought about this 

 sudden rise of intelligence in the case of 

 man? there is a wonderful unanimity among 

 men of science as to the answer. It came 

 about, it is supposed, in connection with the 

 acquisition by man of the power to express 

 his mind, that is to speak. Evolution, up to 

 this time, had only one way of banking the 



gains it won heredity. To hand on any 

 improvement physically was a slow and pre- 

 carious work. But with the discovery of 

 language there arose a new method of pass- 

 ing on a step in progress. Instead of sowing 

 the gain on the wind of heredity, it was 

 fastened on the wings of words. The way to 

 make money is not only to accumulate small 

 gains steadily, but to put them out at a 

 good rate of interest. Animals did the 

 first with their mental acquisitions: man 

 did the second. At a comparatively early 

 date he found out a first-rate and permanent 

 investment for his money, so that he could 

 not only keep his savings and put them out 

 at the highest -rate of interest, but have a 

 Bhare in all the gain that was made by 

 other men. That discovery was language. 

 DRUMMOND Ascent of Man, ch. 4, p. 150. 

 (J. P., 1900.) 



1815. LANGUAGE, BRUTES ATTAIN 

 ONLY RUDIMENTS OF Word as Sign of 

 Idea Only in Human Mind. As yet, how- 

 ever, no observer has been able to follow the 

 workings of mind even in the dog that 

 jumps up for food and barks for the door 

 to be opened. It is hard to say how far the 

 dog's mind merely associates jumping up 

 with being fed, and barking with being let 

 in, or how far it forms a conception like 

 ours of what it is doing and why it does it. 

 Anyhow, it is clear that the beasts and birds 

 go so far in the natural language as to 

 make and perceive gestures and cries as 

 signals. But a dog's mind seems not to go 

 beyond this point, that a good imitation of 

 a mew leads it to look for a cat in the room ; 

 whereas a child can soon make out from 

 the nurse saying "miaou" that she means 

 something about some cat, which need not 

 even be near by. That is, a young child can 

 understand what is not proved to have en- 

 tered into the mind of the cleverest dog, 

 elephant, or ape, that a sound may be used 

 as the sign of a thought or idea. Thus, 

 while the lower animals share with man the 

 beginnings of the natural language, they 

 hardly get beyond its rudiments, while the 

 human mind easily goes on to higher stages. 

 TYLOR Anthropology, ch. 4, p. 123. (A., 

 1899.) 



1816. LANGUAGE CONTINUALLY 

 GENERATED A Living Force Writing "D8. 

 Speech. The true solution of the contrast- 

 ing stability and fluctuation that we find in 

 language lies in the unity of human nature. 

 No one assigns to a word precisely the same 

 meaning that another does, and a shade of 

 meaning, be it ever so slight, ripples on like 

 a circle in the water through the entirety of 

 language. Even the preservation of a lan- 

 guage by means of writing keeps it only in 

 an incomplete way, mummy-like, in which it 

 can only gain vitality by means of timely 

 recitation. In itself it is not a completed 

 work, but an internal energy in the soul be- 

 getting new creations. WTLHELM VON HUM- 

 BOLDT Ueber die Verschiedenheit des mensch- 

 lichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf 



