Is the chimpanzee the coming man? The thought of Superintendent
Conklin, of the Central Park Museum at New York, had a cast
of that hue. He was deeply interested in the possibilities of
the development of intelligence and culture in the chimpanzee
race, and doubtless his dreams went far beyond the daring of
his spoken hope. “Mr. Crowley,” a somewhat noted and remarkably
intelligent specimen of this exalted race of monkeys, long
adorned the museum, and at the time a helpmeet for him was
imported. Dr. Conklin believed that their offspring would
inherit their sagacity, and with two or three generations
of careful training the least he expected was “a chimpanzee
accustomed to wearing clothes, able to stand erect, capable of
being taught the meaning of simple commands, and docile enough
to obey them.” In the fifth or sixth generation, the doctor
thought he should have chimpanzees able to perform to a limited
extent the duties of servants. Following out the idea, the
doctor predicted a gradual improvement in their features and
eventually a possibility that they might grasp the meaning of
words and phrases. This is surely a very practical experiment
in Darwinian evolution, and tho it may seem funny, it is by no
means ridiculous. If horses and dogs may be trained and taught,
why not monkeys? And how much more useful would an intelligent
trained monkey be by reason of his capacity to grasp and handle
things? The story came a few years ago from South America that
chimpanzees are already employed there in picking cotton in
place of the emancipated slaves.--Springfield _Union_.
(970)
=Evolution, Objection to=--See BRAIN IN MAN.
=Exaction=--See IDEAL, THE.
=Exactness of Nature=--See INDIVIDUALITY OF GERMS.
=Exaggeration=--See DIMINUTIVES.