Chap. XIX. 
MUSICAL POWERS. 
333 
The perception, if not the enjoyment, of musical 
cadences and of rhythm is probably common to all ani- 
mals, and no doubt depends on the common physio- 
logical nature of their nervous systems. Even Crus- 
taceans, which are not capable of producing any 
voluntary sound, possess certain auditory hairs, which 
Iiave been seen to vibrate when the proper musical notes 
are struck.^^ It is well known that some dogs howl 
when hearing particular tones. Seals apparently ap- 
preciate music, and their fondness for it was well 
known to the ancients, and is often taken advantage 
of by the hunters at the present day.”^^ With all 
tliose animals, namely insects, amphibians, and birds, 
the males of which during the season of courtship 
incessantly produce musical notes or mere rhythmical 
sounds, we must believe that the females are able to 
appreciate them, and are thus excited or charmed ; 
otherwise the incessant efforts of the males and the 
complex structures often possessed exclusively by them 
would be useless. 
With man song is generally admitted to be the basis 
or origin of instrumental music. As neither the enjoy- 
ment nor the capacity of producing musical notes are 
faculties of the least direct use to man in reference 
to his ordinary habits of life, they must be ranked 
amongst the most mysterious with which he is endowed. 
They are present, though in a very rude and as it 
appears almost latent condition, in men of all races, 
even the most savage ; but so different is the taste of 
the different races, that our music gives not the least 
pleasure to savages, and their music is to us hideous 
and unmeaning. Dr. Seemann, in some interesting 
Helmholtz, ‘ Theorie Phys. de la Musique,’ 1868, p. 187. 
Mr. R. Brown, in ‘Proc. Zoo. Soc.’ 1868, p. 410. 
