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man can articulate sounds, other animals can imitate sounds 
as well as he can. He presents simply, in this respect, a 
greater development of a faculty common to all social 
animals.” 
Mr. Darwin, whilst admitting that language has justly been 
considered as one of the chief distinctions between man and the 
lower animals, quoting Archbishop Whately, says : “ Man is 
not the only animal that can make use of language to express 
what is passing in his mind, and that can understand more or 
less what is expressed by another.” Mr. Darwin says man 
uses, iu common with the lower animals, inarticulate cries to 
express his meaning, aided by gestures and the movement of 
the muscles of the face, and he doubts not “ that language owes 
its origin to the imitation and modification, aided by signs and 
gestures, of various natural sounds, the voices of other animals, 
and man^s instinctive cries.” He suggests the probability that 
f£ primaeval man, or rather some early progenitor of man, used 
his voice largely, as does one of the gibbon apes at the present 
day, in producing true musical cadences — that is, singing; ” and 
it does not appear to him altogether incredible, that “ some un- 
usually wise ape-like animal should have thought of imitating 
the growl of a beast of prey, so as to indicate to his fellow- 
monkeys the nature of the expected danger ; and this would 
have been a first step in the formation of a language ” ! A 
writer in the Edinburgh Review , commenting upon the above 
passage, asks for the evidence that at the present day some un- 
usually wise ape has ever been known to imitate the cry of a 
wild beast, so as to indicate its presence to its fellows. Further, 
Mr. Darwin says that the sounds uttered by birds offer in several 
respects the nearest analogy to language, and he lays great stress 
upon the fact that parrots can talk. Now, I maintain that the 
so-called talking of the parrot is not articulate language, it is 
merely the result of a remarkable power of imitation possessed 
by that bird, which faculty of imitation can exist in the human 
subject after the power of language has ceased. The following 
case observed by myself will illustrate my meaning : — During a 
recent visit to La Salpetriere, an institution in Paris for the 
reception of female patients for the most part afflicted with 
some mental disorder, the physician, Dr. Auguste Yoisin, 
knowing I was interested in the question of language, called my 
attention to the case of an old woman in whom the faculty of 
speech was completely suspended, but who, although she never 
spoke, repeated like a parrot all that was said before her. For 
instance, Dr. Yoisin addressed her thus : — “ Youlez-vous manger 
aujourd’hui V She said instantly, “ Youlez-vous manger 
aujourd'hui ?” I then said to her, “ Quel age avez-vous?” 
