314 PLEASANT WAYS IN SCIENCE. 



upon their cleanliness a time and attention that in many 

 cases the children of our own species might well envy. The 

 Malays related a fact to me, which I doubted at first, but 

 which I consider to be in a great measure confirmed by my 

 own subsequent observations. It is that the young siamangs, 

 whilst yet too weak to go alone, are always carried by 

 individuals of their own sex, by their fathers if they are 

 males, and by their mothers if females. I have also been 

 assured that these animals frequently become the prey of 

 the tiger, from the same species of fascination which serpents 

 are said to exercise over birds, squirrels, and other small 

 animals. Servitude, however long, seems to have no effect 

 in modifying the characteristic defects of this ape his 

 stupidity, sluggishness, and awkwardness. It is true that a 

 few days suffice to make him as gentle and contented as he 

 was before wild and distrustful ; but, constitutionally timid, 

 he never acquires the familiarity of other apes, and even his 

 submission appears to be rather the result of extreme apathy 

 than of any degree of confidence or affection. He is almost 

 equally insensible to good or bad treatment ; gratitude and 

 revenge are equally strange to him." 



We have next to consider certain points connected with 

 the theory of the relationship between man and the anthro- 

 poid apes. It is hardly necessary for me to say, perhaps, 

 that in thus dealing with a subject requiring for its 

 independent investigation the life-long study of depart- 

 ments of science which are outside those in which I have 

 taken special interest, I am not pretending to advance my 

 opinion as of weight in matters as yet undetermined by 

 zoologists. But it has always seemed to me, that when 

 those who have made special study of a subject collect and 

 publish the result of their researches, and a body of evidence 

 is thus made available for the general body scientific, the 

 facts can be advantageously considered by students of other 

 branches of science, so only that, in leaving for a while 

 their own subject, they do not depart from the true scientific 

 method, and that they are specially careful to distinguish. 



