494 The American Naturalist [j un e, 



live use by parrots) we come to the question of the origin of 

 language. Did it spring from the human mind, ready 

 equipped for all uses, like Minerva from the brain of Jove ? 

 Or was its origin as simple and as humble, as evolution has 

 shown the early beginnings of other things to be ? 



In studying the evidence for mental evolution supplied by 

 language, it is essential to begin with the most primitive 

 forms known to us. Instead therefore of having recourse to 

 Sanskrit and kindred Aryan languages, the product of the 

 mental processes of the highest race of man, we must examine 

 the forms of speech of primitive people, and of semi-civilized 

 and savage tribes. Here again ontogeny may take us further 

 and deeper than phylogeny, and problems which have puzzled 

 the learned may find their solution in the nursery. 



The dawning wishes and desires of an infant are expressed 

 by indeterminate movements of the legs and arms. A vigorous 

 kicking of the legs will express the joy of a healthy baby at 

 being taken from a place of which it is tired to a fresh room, 

 or out-of-doors. Perhaps the first determinate movement that 

 can be noticed is the forward movement of the arms with the 

 hope of being taken by father, mother, or nurse, and the next, 

 the stretching out of the hands for some coveted object, both 

 occurring very early in a healthy baby. The frustration of 

 these desires, as most of us know to our cost, is accompanied 

 by most piercing vocal demonstrations indicating pain, anger, 

 or disappointment. I cannot help regarding these vocal 

 demonstrations as survivals from the mode of expressing him- 

 self " Homo alalus." And if Miocene man roared and screamed 

 as lustily in proportion to his size, as does our modern baby, 

 the din must have been truly appalling, and calculated to 

 strike terror into the heart of the Mastodon himself. 

 (To be continued.) 



