MENTAL LIFE OF MONKEYS AND APES 135 



This picture of the status of scientific work on the primates, 

 although not overdrawn, will doubtless surprise many readers, 

 and even the biologist may find himself wondering why we are 

 so ignorant concerning the lives of the organisms most nearly 

 akin to us, and naturally of deepest interest to us. The reasons 

 are not far to seek. Most scientific investigators are forced by 

 circumstances to work with organisms which are readily ob- 

 tained and easily kept. The primates have neither of these 

 advantages, for many, if not most of them, are expensive to 

 get and either difficult or expensive to keep in good condition. 

 Clearly, then, our ignorance is due not to lack of appreciation 

 of the scientific value of primate research but instead to its 

 difficultness and costliness. 



Strangely enough, the practical importance of knowledge of 

 the primates has seldom been dwelt upon even by those biolo- 

 gists who are especially interested in it. It is, therefore, appro- 

 priate to emphasize the strictly human value of the work for 

 which I am seeking provision. 



During the past few years it has been abundantly and con- 

 vincingly demonstrated that knowledge of other organisms may 

 aid directly in the solution of many of the problems of experi- 

 mental medicine, of physiology, genetics, psychology, sociology, 

 and economics. In the light of these results, it is obviously 

 desirable that all studies of infrahuman organisms, but especi- 

 ally those of the various primates, should be made to contri- 

 bute to the solution of our human problems. 



To me it seems that thoroughgoing knowledge of the lives 

 of the infrahuman primates would inevitably make for human 

 betterment. Through the science of genetics, as advanced by 

 experimental studies of the monkeys and anthropoid apes, prac- 

 tical eugenic procedures should be more safely based and our 

 ability to predict organic phenomena greatly increased. Sim- 

 ilarly, intensive knowledge of the diseases of the other primates 

 in their relations to human diseases should contribute import- 

 antly to human welfare. And finally, our careful studies of 

 the fundamental instincts, forms of habit formation, and social 

 relations in the monkeys and apes should lead to radical im- 

 provements in our educational methods as well as in other 

 forms of social service. 



Along theoretical lines, no less than practical, systematic 



