COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 33 



tual phenomena among the human race. As for the specific 

 difference which some have tried to establish under this head 

 between man and animals,, if it were correct it must be shown 

 that language is completely unattainable by any mammalia, 

 even within the most restricted limits. 



And is it so ? Will it be mooted that certain animals have 

 not even a rudiment of language, whether articulated or not 

 it does not much signify, in their state of nature ? Will it be 

 mooted that they never make any sort of sign in order to com- 

 municate anything to one another, to call them, or give an 

 alarm, or express some peculiar sensation ?* 



Experience would entirely deny any such assertion. And this 

 not only with reference to the superior animals, for this faculty 

 appears to be extended even to the invertebrata. The well-known 

 experiments of P. Huber seem to have proved in the most deci- 

 sive manner that ants,f like bees, are able to transmit certain 

 signs or indications from one to the other ; even if the mere 

 act of living in a republic, of joining together in one common 

 work, did not offer the strongest presumption of a language 

 peculiar to these creatures. If anyone dares to deny to animals 

 the spontaneous exercise of a restricted language, limited in 

 whatever way that may be desired, at least it cannot be denied 

 that many of the vertebrate animals are not capable of receiving 

 from it an equal education, of understanding the signification of 

 certain sounds, of certain signs, and of producing in their turn 

 such as may be understood by us, of communicating to us any 

 of their thoughts, or any of their appreciations. 



We are not speaking here of animals who can reproduce 

 certain sounds belonging to the vocal organs of man ; that is a 

 fact of an entirely material character, and which has no refer- 

 ence to the question of language. It is evident that the animal 

 which articulates any word whatsoever does not understand it 

 a whit more than the man who imitates the cry of an animal, 

 and, in a general way, neither comprehends its sense nor its sig- 

 nification. 



* Eecherches sur les mceurs defourmis indigenes, Geneve, 1810. 

 f We refer our readers for all these questions to the remarkable works of 

 M. Toussenel. 



