244 
THE SPEECH OE MONKEYS 
But much, if not the whole value which they bear, 
must depend not only on the certainty that “ their 
sounds convey a fixed idea on a given subject from 
one mind to another,” but also on the assurance that 
these sounds are sufficiently numerous and definite in 
meaning not to come under the same head as mere 
exclamations of alarm, or pleasure, which form part of 
the usual utterance of so many animals. A cat, for 
instance, shows pleasure by sound, — that is, by purring ; 
displeasure or fear by sound, — that is, by growling and 
spitting ; and desire by sound, — that is, by mewing ; 
and if all that Professor Garner had to show was that 
monkeys had something equivalent, or rather more 
than equivalent, to a cat’s purring, growling, or mewing, 
there would be nothing very remarkable in the fact, 
though the extreme ingenuity and patient attention 
which he has exhibited in making his experiments 
must always lend these a subordinate and secondary 
interest of their own. But he rightly excludes mere 
sounds of emotion from the faculty of “ speech,” such 
as he claims for monkeys. “ Speech,” he says, “is 
that form of materialized thought which is confined to 
oral sounds, when they are designed to convey a 
definite idea from mind to mind ; ” and “ sounds 
which only express emotion are not speech.” It is, 
therefore, not sufficient for Professor Garner to 
show that the sounds which he has so carefully 
observed and noted are understood by his monkeys, 
he has also to show that they are distinct from 
mere expressions of emotion. The fuller experi- 
