The Speech of Monkeys

Some months ago I made a record of the voice of the great Anubis baboon, in Philadelphia. I did not expect to find in him an elevated type of speech; but my purpose was to compare it with other Simian sounds, to see if I could not establish a series of steps in the quality of vocal sounds which would coincide with certain other characters. I had found by the study of certain cranial forms that certain vocal types conformed to certain skulls, and were as much a conformation thereof as are the cerebral hemispheres. I then believed, and have had no cause since to recede from it, that the vocal powers were correctly measured by the gnathic index; that the mind and voice were commensurate; and that as the cranio-facial angle widens the voice degrades in quality and scope. In man, I find the highest vocal type, and just as we descend in the cranial scale, the vocal type descends into sounds less flexible, less capable, and less musical. These deductions apply only to mammals; among birds, insects, &c., a different order may prevail. [Sidenote: RECORDS OF LIONS]