264 



ON NATURAL OR INARTICULATE, AND 



upper part of the larynx, and into which the air is driven as it ascends from 

 the lungs through the trachea, instead of being driven into the glottis, where 

 alone it could acquire modulation and articulate sounds. From this sac or 

 bag it afterward passes into the mouth by a variety of small apertures or 

 fissures, by which almost the whole of its force, and consequently of its vocal 

 effect, is lost. This peculiar conformation appears first to have been noticed 

 by Galen, who traced it through several varieties both of the ape and monkey 

 families ; but for the most correct account of it we are indebted to Professor 

 Camper, who, in a paper published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1779, 

 minutely describes it as it exists in the sylvanus or pigmy, in which Tyson 

 had overlooked it ; in vario\]s other species of the ape ; in the cynosurus or 

 dog-tailed monkey ; and in many others of the monkey tribe. At all adven- 

 tures, the monkey has a peculiar deficiency of natural tongue and we 

 hence obtain an insuperable objection, had we no others, but which, I have 

 already shown, are sufficiently abundant,* to the declaration of Lord Mon- 

 boddo and Linnaeus, that this tribe are all of the same original stock as man ; 

 and their absurd story that man himself is not unfrequently to be met with in 

 some of the Asiatic islands, with a monkey-tail, varying in length from three 

 or four inches to a foot, possessing as great a fluency of speech as in any 

 part of Europe. 



Marcgrave, in his history of Brazil, has amused us with an account of a 

 very extraordinary species of American sapajou, which Linnaeus has called 

 Beelzebub, — Buffon, Ouarine, and our own countryman Mr. Pennant, Preacher- 

 monkey, — that assemble in large groups every morning and evening, and atten- 

 tively listen to a loud and long-continued harangue of one of the tribe, whom 

 he seems to suppose a public officer or popular demagogue. Upon the author- 

 ity of Marcgrave, this species has been admitted into all our books of Natu- 

 ral History ; but there are some doubts concerning it, and the description is 

 at least without the support of concurrent testimony. 



The diiferent accents of the dog and the horse, when under the influence of 

 rage, desire, or exultation, are too powerful and too common not to have been 

 noticed by almost every one. It is impossible to describe the different tones of 

 the mastiff more precisely than in the words of the truly philosophical poet I 

 have so lately referred to ; but as it would be improper to quote him in the ori- 

 ginal before a popular audience, I must request of you to receive a feeble 

 translation of him in its stead :— 



When half enraged 

 The rude Molossian mastiff; her keen teeth 

 Baring tremendous, with far different lune 

 Threats, than wlien rous'dto madness more extreme, 

 Or when she barks, and fills the world with roar. 

 Thus, when her fearless whelps, too, she, with tongue 

 Lambent, caresses, and, with antic paw. 

 And tooth restrain'd pretending still to bite, 

 Gambols, soft yelping tones of tender love — 

 Far different then, those accents from the din 

 TJrg'd clamorous through the mansion when alone, 

 Or the shrill howl her trembling bosom heaves, 

 When, with sliuik form, she waits th' impending blow.t 



The language of the tiger, leopard, and cat is not so rich or diversified as 

 that of the dog ; but they have still a considerable variation in the scale of 

 their mewings, according to the predominant passion of fear or grief: while 



• Series ii. Lecture iii. On the Varieties of the Human Race, 

 t Inritata canum quom primum magna MolossOm 



Mollia ricta fremunt, duros nudantia denteis, 



Longe alio sonitu rabies districta minatur, 



Et quom jam latrant, et vocibus omnia conplent. 



At catulos blande quom lingu4 lambere tentant, 



Aut ubi eos lactam pedibus, morsuque potentes, 



Subspensis ten^ros imitantur dentibus hauatus, 



Longe alio pacto gannitu vocis adulant, 



Et quom desertei baubantur in aedibus, aut quom 



Plorantes fugiunt, submisso corpore, plagat. 



De Rer. Nat. v. 1063. 



