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Show 1889.] FACULTIES OF THE BALD CHIMPANZEE. 319 losing patience than to her losing count; although after seven I believe that her computation of the numbers themselves becomes vague, or merged in a merely general idea of many. It may also be stated that while picking up the straws and placing them in her mouth she looks only at the straws themselves, and not at the person who asks for them : therefore she is certainly not actuated in her responses by interpreting facial expression, unconscious gesture, & c , as is no doubt the case with many dogs which, on this account, are sometimes accredited by their owners with powers of " thought reading." It is needless to add that, after asking for the number of straws required, we remain silent till the ape has handed them out. It is not necessary-indeed it would be unreasonable-to suppose that in this process of "counting " the ape employs any system of notation. W e know from our own experience that there is counting and counting-i. e., distinguishing between low numbers by directly appreciating the difference between two quantities of sensuous perception, and distinguishing between numbers of any amount by marking each perception with a separate sign. The extent to which the former kind of computation can be carried in the case of man has been made the subject of a careful research by Prof. Preyer of Jena (Sitzungsb. d. Gesell. f. Med. u. Naturwiss. 1881). His experiments consisted in ascertaining the number of objects (such as dots on a piece of paper) which admit of being simultaneously estimated with accuracy, and it was found that the number admits of being largely increased by practice, until, in the case of some persons, it may rise to more than twenty. But, of course, in the case of a brute it is not to be expected that such a high degree of proficiency even in this non-notative kind of " counting " should be attainable. The utmost that could here be expected is that a brute should exhibit some such level of ability as is presented by a young child, or by those savages whose powers of accurate computation do not appear to extend further than numbers which we write as units **. It was in view of such considerations that I did not attempt to carry the education of this ape beyond the number five ; and the result which has attended subsequent endeavours to teach her numbers as high as ten is, as previously remarked, exactly what one might have anticipated. It may here be added that in the only records with which I am acquainted of animals exhibiting any powers of numerical computation, these powers have not extended beyond the number five. Thus, for instance, in his well-known account of these powers as presented by rooks, Leroy says : - " To deceive this suspicious bird the plan was hit upon of sending two men into the watch-house, one of whom passed out while the other remained [to shoot the bird on returning to her nest]; but the rook counted and kept her distance. Next day three went, and again she perceived that only two returned. In fine, it was found necessary to send five or six men to the watch-house in order to throw out her calculations " 2. Again, 1 See, for example, Galton, ' Tropical South Africa,' p. 213. 2 " Letters," &c. |
