Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/410

386 thither to summon individuals who, in their folly, take no note of the change of temperature. Is it not plain that these birds know how to say, "It is time to he gone?"

But in all probability the language of animals gives expression only to very simple impressions and ideas. But, inasmuch as we do not understand it, we cannot define either its extent or its true character. Some persons have the power of imitating the calls and songs of birds; and birds, in turn, repeat human language, without, however, understanding its sense; it is only very rarely that we can recognize in the phrase uttered by the inhabitant of a cage the expression of a desire. Man and dog, close friends though they are, understand one another only by means of a sort of pantomime. Eventually the dog understands some of the words spoken by his master, and the man. understands some of the vocal expressions of his trusty friend; and this is the highest result of long association. It appears as though, by a supreme will, an insurmountable obstacle had been opposed to all close communication between man and animals.

Apparently those animals whose organization comes nearest to that of man lack both the faculty of producing an ensemble of articulate sounds and the degree of intelligence requisite for attaching to words a strictly determinate meaning. No monkey has ever learned to talk. In our own day the comparative study of specialties of organization and of the life-conditions of living beings has thrown light upon the subject of articulate speech. We may confidently affirm that a creature possessing an instrument or an organ subject to the control of its will comes into the world possessed of an instinct to employ that organ or instrument; guided by intelligence, it will make more or less happy use of it. As individuals differ from one another in the perfection of their vocal organs, so too they differ in the measure of their control of those organs. Natural gifts and judicious exercise afford immense advantages. All men possess a vocal apparatus: for talking or for singing they usually employ it skillfully enough to answer all common demands; while a privileged few produce wonderful effects with the same instrumentalities.

The mechanism of voice deserves to be studied by all. As regards man, we now have very accurate knowledge of the manner in which speech and singing are produced. Means having been found of viewing the play of the different parts of the larynx, physicians intent upon the advancement of the art of healing, physiologists spurred on by the desire of explaining phenomena, singers eager to penetrate the secret of the highest achievements in their art, have all devoted themselves to patient researches. The results of a multitude of investigations have been published, and in this way science has been greatly extended. Dr. Mandl, an observer who had already studied in its minutest details the structure of the respiratory organs, has given the fullest account yet presented of the vocal apparatus in all the phases