USE OF THE PHONOGRAPH 17 



speech of monkeys to record. While this first experi- 

 ment was crude and the results were not conclusive, it 

 pointed in the right direction and it inspired to further 

 efforts to find the fountain head from which flows the 

 great river of human speech. 



Some critic at that time declared that this experiment 

 could be of no scientific value, because the monkey had 

 been provoked to make the sounds recorded, and the 

 sounds so evoked were only sounds of anger or profanity. 

 It was not a matter of concern to me whether these words 

 were moral or profane, so long as they were speech sounds 

 of a monkey and were so recognized by other monkeys. 

 If a monkey uses profanity, he doubtless has some other 

 forms of speech. 



Shortly after this experiment I went to Chicago and 

 made a record of a brown Cebus monkey. This record 

 was of a sound most commonly used by that species. I 

 had no exact idea as to its meaning, but its frequent use 

 caused me to select it as one of their most important 

 words. Having secured this, I returned to New York. 

 There I selected a monkey of the same species and to 

 him reproduced the record. He instantly gave signs of 

 understanding it and replied to it. Again and again this 

 sound was reproduced and he repeatedly answered it. He 

 looked at the horn from which it came, then at the moving 

 instrument, and drew back from them. But as the sound 

 continued to proceed from the horn his interest seemed to 

 awaken. He approached the horn and cautiously peeped 

 into it. The sound was repeated. He thrust his arm 

 into the horn and peeped around the outside to see if he 



