240 
THE SPEECH OF MONKEYS. 
Mr. Garner’s claim to have gained a clue to a form 
of language understood by monkeys for a short time 
excited more interest than any subject of natural 
history in recent years. It was based on such in- 
genious experiments, including the practical use of 
such an invention as the phonograph, and was based 
on methods so pleasing to the scientific mind, that 
there seemed more than a probability that he was on 
the verge of a great discovery. On the other hand, 
men like the keepers of the monkeys in the Zoological 
Gardens, who have a special and practical knowledge 
of the subject, refused for a moment to entertain the 
idea, either that there was a universal “ Simian tongue,” 
or even one which was common to more than the 
members of a single class. In his book on the “ Speech 
of Monkeys,” 1 he gives in a complete form the result 
of the ingenious inquiries, the first instalment of which 
roused such curiosity when published in the New 
Review. Every one who read the story of the clever 
1 The Speech of Monkeys , by R. Garner. London : Heine- 
mann. 
