1879. ] Grief in the Chimpanzee. 175 
the attention which they received, the grief now caused by the 
man’s absence would naturally be much stronger and a more ex- 
act representation of the gestures of grief would be made. 
Notwithstanding the intensity of his sorrow at first, it seems 
sufficiently evident that now a vivid recollection of the nature of 
the past association is not present. To test this a mirror was 
placed before him, with the expectation that on seeing a figure so 
exactly like his lost mate, some of the customary signs of recog- 
nition would take place, but even by caressing and pretending to 
feed the figure in the glass, not a trace of the expected feeling 
could be excited. In fact, the only visible indication of a change 
of circumstances is that while the two of them were accustomed 
to sleep at night in each other’s arms on a blanket on the floor, 
which they moved from place to place to suit their conveni- 
ence, since the death of the one; the other has invariably slept on 
a cross-beam at the top of the cage, returning to inherited habit 
and showing, probably, that the apprehension of unseen dangers 
has been heightened by his sense of loneliness. 
On looking over the field of animal emotion it seems evident 
that any high degree of permanence in grief of this nature be- 
longs only to man; slight indications of its persistence in mem- 
ory are visible in some of the higher animals ard domesticated 
races, but in most of them the feeling appears to be excited only 
by the failure of the inanimate body, while present to the sight, 
to perform the accustomed actions. 
The foundation of the sentiment of grief is probably in a percep- 
tion of loss sustained in being deprived of services which had been 
of use. An unrestrained indulgence in an emotion so powerful as 
this has become in its higher forms, would undoubtedly prevent due 
attention to the bodily necessities of the animal subjected to it; 
in man, its prostrating effects are mainly counteracted by an intel- 
ligent recognition of the desirability of repairing the injury suf- 
fered, and in him, therefore, the feeling may exist without serious 
detriment to his welfare, but among the lower animals it would 
seem probable that any tendency to its development would be 
checked by its own destructive effects—the feeling, for instance, 
would most frequently occur on the death of a mate—a deep and 
lasting grief would then tend to prevent a new association of like 
nature and would thus impede the performance of the first func- 
_ tion of an animal in its relation to its kind—that of reproduction. 
