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THE QUARTERLY REVIEW OF BIOLOGY 



it as hard work because it requires intense 

 specialization and long application. But 

 in these qualities it agrees with modern 

 sport. Like modern sport, it is, economi- 

 cally and physiologically, immediately 

 useless. It is even more than useless: it is 

 unnatural — a fact often charged against 

 organized sport, but just as true of science. 

 There is in us an element making us strive 

 for mastery or excellence or perfection of 

 achievement for its own sake, apart from 

 the satisfaction of any definable physio- 

 logical need. It is the driving of this 

 impulse to the point of physiological dis- 

 comfort, even of bodily strain or damage, 

 that gives sport and science their quality 

 of unnaturalness. At their fullest, they 

 are perversions of the play impulse. 



No chimpanzee seems capable of being 

 so perverse: he is too unintelligent, from 

 our point of view; but also too sensible, 

 too concordant physiologically. For bet- 

 ter or for worse, however, we men are 

 prone to this exaggeration of the play 

 impulse; and, again for better or for 

 worse, the exaggeration has perceptibly 

 aided the gradual accretion of the stock 

 of modern culture, as well as the better- 

 ment of athletic records. 



The chimpanzee, in his youth, is as 

 playful, restless, curious, and explorative 

 as any human being. He does not go 

 very far in tool invention, because his 

 central nervous system seems to become 

 quickly and healthily fatigued by play 

 which puts on the nervous system any 

 strain that cannot be promptly discharged 

 into striped muscle activity. He is phy- 

 siologically a clear extra vert. The gorilla, 

 on the other hand, is described as an in- 

 trovert, with more self-respect and sense 

 of value of his personality. It remains 

 to be seen whether in the field of pure 

 intellect the gorilla will prove the equal 

 or superior of the chimpanzee, once we 

 have learned to establish relations with 

 him satisfactory to his temperament. 



A demonstrated psycho-physiological 

 trait of the ape is lack of patience in the 

 solution of a problem. As soon as diffi- 

 culties are encountered which cannot be 

 solved by direct use of hands, feet, or 

 mouth, the chimpanzee tends to take 

 refuge in irritation or sulks; the gorilla 

 becomes dignifiedly indifferent. An added 

 stimulus, such as doubling the reward, 

 or approach of a competitor, may launch 

 him again at the task, and perhaps with 

 success. But the effort is new, not con- 

 tinuous. 



The fact is of interest because it finds a 

 parallel in the history of culture. There 

 was required actually less skill to fashion 

 many of the ground or polished stone 

 implements of the New Stone Age than 

 some of the specialized chipped ones of 

 the Old Stone Age, tens of thousands of 

 years earlier. The average modern per- 

 son who has never worked stone would, 

 if the reward were sufficient, almost cer- 

 tainly turn out on the first attempt a 

 better ground mortar or ground stone axe 

 than a chipped knife or spear point, if 

 indeed he would not fail utterly in the 

 latter. The reason is that while chipping 

 requires definite manual control, it is a 

 very rapid process. A dozen failures 

 occupy little time; each may suggest the 

 possibility of an improvement; and the 

 thirteenth attempt may be reasonably 

 satisfactory. Grinding, however, al- 

 though one of the simplest of operations, 

 is of necessity slow. Early man was 

 apparently readier to mobilize a fair de- 

 gree of manipulative skill than a great 

 amount of patience. 



INVENTION BY ACCIDENT 



That the chimpanzee possesses a be- 

 ginning of ability to reverse his primary 

 impulse is shown by a series of experi- 

 ments by Koehler. After the animals 

 had learned to use a stick to gather in 

 food from beyond their reach, the fruit 



