THE 
 
 ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 ANTIQUITY OF SPEAKING MAN. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 befoke the section of anthropology of the american 
 association for the advancement of science, 
 
 At Buffalo, August, 1886. 
 
 By HORATIO HALE, 
 
 vice-president. 
 
 [From tlie Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement 
 of Science, Vol. XXXV.] 
 
 CAMBRIDGE : 
 
 JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
 
 tanfbctsfts |3tes9. 
 
 1886. 
 
ADDEESS 
 
 BY 
 
 HOKATIO HALE, 
 
 VICE-PKESIt»ENT, SECTION H. 
 
 THE ORIGIN OF LANGUAGES, AND TEE ANTIQUITY OF 
 SPEAKING MAN. 
 
 In the studj- of every science there arise from time to time 
 difricult questions or problems, which seem to bar the wa}- of tlie 
 student in one direction or another. It becomes apparent that on 
 the proper sohition of these problems the progress of the science 
 mainly depends ; and the minds of all inquirers are bent earnestly' 
 on the discovery of tliis solution. Such in biolog}' are the questions 
 of the origin of life and the genesis of species. Anthropology, and 
 its auxiliary or component sciences of comparative philologj', ethnol- 
 ogy, and archaeology, have their share of these problems. Among 
 them two of the most important are undoubtedly, in philology, the 
 question of the origin of linguistic stocks, and in archaeology, the 
 question of the epoch at which man acquired the faculty of speech. 
 In the language of modern diplomacy, these would be st3led 
 " burning questions," which must be settled before any hopeful 
 progress can be made in other discussions. A brief consideration 
 of these questions, in the light cast upon them by the most recent 
 discoveries, maj' therefore be deemed to form an appropriate 
 introduction to the work of our Section. Brief!}' defined, then, our 
 inquiry on this occasion will have for its subjects, or rather its 
 subject, — for the two questions are closely coiuiected, and form in 
 reality but one problem, — the origin of languages and the antiquity 
 of speaking man. 
 
 Tiie question of the origin of languages must be distinguished 
 from the different and larger question of the origin of language, 
 
4 SECTION H. 
 
 which belongs rather to anthropology proper than to the science 
 of linguistics, and will come under consideration in the later part 
 of our iniiuir}-. Nor yet does our question concern the rise and 
 development of tlie dilierent tongues belonging to one linguistic 
 stocli or family, like the sixty languages of the Aryan or Jndo- 
 European stock, tlic twenty languages of the Hamito-Semitic family, 
 the one hundred and sixty-eiglit languages enumerated by ]Mr. 
 R. N. Cust as comi)osing the great Bantu or South African iamily, 
 and the thirty-five languages of the wide-spread Algonkin stock. 
 Such idioms, however much thej' may ditfer, arc in their nature 
 only dialects. The manner in which these idioms originate is per- 
 fectly well understood. When two communities, in the barbarous 
 or semi-barbarous stage, whose members spoke originally the same 
 language, have been separated for a certain length of time, a dill'cr- 
 cnce of dialect, due to differences of climate, culture, customs, and 
 otlier circumstances, grows up between them. They can still un- 
 derstand each other's speech, but there are variances in pronuncia- 
 tion and in the use of certain words, by which they can readil}' be 
 distinguished. In the progress of time these differences increase. 
 Grammatical peculiarities are developed. Permutations of ele- 
 mentary sounds, like those which are manifested in the famous 
 "Grimm's law," alter whole classes of words be3-ond the recogni- 
 tion of a hearer familiar only with the original speech. And, finall}', 
 two distinct languages are found to have come into being, so diverse 
 in vocabularj- and grammar that each must be learned as a foreign 
 speeeh by the speakers of the other tongue. Yet, however wide 
 may be the diversity, a careful analysis and comparison will always 
 disclose the kinship, and indicate the common origin of the two 
 languages. 
 
 But while the manner in which different languages of the same 
 family arise is thus evident enough, not merely in theory, but in the 
 numerous instances which have occurred within historic times, we 
 Lave neither instance nor satisfactory theory to explain the dis- 
 tinction between the families themselves. "When, for example, we 
 have traced back the Ar3-an (or Indo-European) languages and the 
 Semitic languages to their separate mother-tongues, wliich we are 
 able to frame out ot the scattered dialects, we find between these 
 two mother-tongues a great gulf, which no explanation thus far 
 proposed has sufficed to bridge over. How strongly the sense of 
 this difficulty has been felt by the highest minds engaged in philo- 
 
ADDKEaS BY HORATIO HALE. 
 
 logical study will be evident from two striking examples. Sixty 
 years ago, Baron William von HmnlioUlt, who held in this branch of 
 study the same position wliieli was held by liis illustrious brother in 
 the natural sciences, found it — as Dr. IJrinton states in the excellent 
 Introduction to his translation of Iluniboklt's •* Philosophic CJram- 
 uiar of the American Languages" — "so contrary to the results of 
 his prolonged and profound study of languages to believe, for in- 
 stance, that a tongue like the Sanscrit could ever be developed from 
 one like the Chinese, that he frankly said that he would rather accept 
 at once the doctrine of those who attribute the dilferent idioms of 
 men to an immediate revelation from God." Fifty years later, the 
 distinguished representative of linguistic science in France, Pro- 
 fessor Abel Ilovelacque, pronounced in his admirable comi)endium, 
 "La Linguistique " (ISTO), what may be deemed the "last word" 
 of science on this subject. " >«ot only," he allirms, "is there no 
 grammatical identity between the system of the Semitic languages 
 and that of the Indo-European tongues, but these two comprehend 
 inflection in a manner entirely dilfcreiit. Their roots are totally 
 distinct ; their formative elements are essentiall}- dilfcrent ; and 
 there is no relation between the two modes in which these elements 
 perform their functions. The ab3'ss between the two systems is 
 not merely profound, — it is impassable." 
 
 Such then is the difliculty and the gravity of this question of the 
 origin of languages, — a problem as serious and as fundamentally 
 important for philological science as the question of the origin of 
 species is deemed in biolog}' ; and, as has been alread}' renuirkcd, 
 on the correct solution of this problem the progress and the future, 
 not merely of philology, but of the whole " Science of Man," may 
 be said to depend. For not until it is finally settled will the minds 
 of the students of this science be in accord on the all-important ques- 
 tion whether tlio human race belongs to many species or to only one. 
 
 Attempts to solve the problem have not been lacking. Several 
 solutions have, indeed, been proposed, but no one of them has 
 met with general acceptance. One of these suggested explanations 
 takes into account the element of time. If man has existed for 
 tiousands of centuries, his speech might, it is supposed, have 
 undergone in that vast period all the alterations required to produce 
 these various linguistic stocks. But the conclusions of William von 
 Humboldt and of Professor Ilovelacque, already cited, — conclu- 
 sions which express the generally received views of the best philol- 
 
6 SECTION n. 
 
 ogists, — show that this cxplauation cannot be entertained. If the 
 (levclopnicnt of a language lilvo tiie Sanscrit from a language like 
 the CliiiK'se is inconceivable, — if the abyss between the Semitic 
 and the Indo-European tongues is impassable, — then it is clear 
 that the mere element of time canncjt help us in this dillieulty. 
 Moreover, we know, as a matter of fact, that the passage of time 
 has not the effect sui)i)oscd. It is certain that the distance between 
 a Semitic tongue and an Aryan tongue in our day — as, for 
 example, between the modern Arabic and the English — is no 
 greater and no less than was the distance between the Semitic As- 
 syrian and the Aryan Sanscrit a thousand 3ears before the Chris- 
 tian era. If thirty centuries have made no appreciable change in 
 the distinction between these two linguistic families, why should we 
 suppose that three thousand centuries would produce any effect in 
 that direction? But in reality, as will be seen in the progress 
 of our inquiry, it is most probable that no such element of long- 
 protracted time can be admitted in the present case. 
 
 Another theory which has been favored b^- some esteemed writers, 
 and among others b}' Lyell in his famous work on the " Antiquit}' 
 of Man," supposes that, when men first acquired the capacity of 
 speech, their use of language was probably confined to a few mono- 
 syllabic roots, of vague and fluctuating import, and that, when those 
 who spoke this primitive and half-formed tongue were scattered 
 abroad, their imperfect speech developed into the widel}' different 
 languages which became the mother-tongues of the various linguis- 
 tic families. This ingenious hypothesis, however, is liable, as will 
 be seen, to all the objections which the previousl}- described theory 
 has had to encounter, and, like that, does not stand the test either 
 of reasoning or of facts. If those who used this primitive speech 
 were — as we must suppose them to have been — human beings like 
 those who now exist, their language was a language complete in all 
 its parts ; for no tribe of men has been found in any part of the 
 world so low in the scale of humanit}' as not to have a complete 
 and thoroughly organized language. This language may, like the 
 Chinese and the A'namese, consist wholly or mainly of roots ; but 
 it is none the less complete, and — what is more important to the 
 argument — none the less permanent. In the vast Chinese em- 
 pire, after an existence of more than four thousand years, one 
 spoken language prevails, with dift'erences of dialect not so great 
 us the differences which exist between the Romanic languages of 
 
ADDIUCaS BY HORATIO HALK. 7 
 
 Europe. If it be suggestpd that this pcrniancnco may be due to 
 the existence of one government and of a written iliaractor, tiie 
 same cannot be afHnned of the nnm}' nionos3llabic hingiiagcs be- 
 longing to the great linguistic families of Trausgaugetic India, — 
 the Tibeto-lJurnian family, tlie Tai family, and liie Mon-Anam 
 family, — where sometimes, as is shown by Mr. Cust in his valu- 
 able work on the "Modern Languages of the East Indies," twenty 
 different languages belonging to one linguistic stoeiv are spolven by 
 connnuiiities living under a dozen different governments, and in 
 every stage of culture. Furthermore, it may be asked, How is it 
 possil)le to suppose that the nineteen distinct linguistic stocks 
 which have been found to exist in what is now the State of Cali- 
 fornia can have originated in dialects of a monosyllabic language 
 spoken thousands of years ago on anotlier continent? Where did 
 these dialects lose all traces of resemblance, and how did the speak- 
 ers of them come to be living side by side in this narrow area? 
 This theory, it will be seen, raises dilllculties far greater than 
 those which it undertakes to explain. 
 
 Finally, the latest proposed solution, and one which merits spe- 
 cial attention for its scientific interest and the weight of authority 
 in its favor, is the theory first propounded, I believe, by the dis- 
 tinguished Viennese etluH^logist, Dr. Frederick Miiller, and adopted 
 b}' Dr. Ernest Ilaeckel, by Professor Ilovelacque, by General Faid- 
 herbe, and other eminent authorities. This theory supposes that 
 men, or rather the precursors of man, were at first incapable of 
 speech, and that they acquired tliis capacity at different jilaces. 
 This opinion is so important tliat it should be stated in the language 
 of one of its chief .advocates. In his work, "La Linguistiipie," 
 already quoted, Professor Ilovelaccjue, after describing the im- 
 passable gulf which separates the Semitic and the Indo-European 
 languages, adds that tlie case of these languages is the ease of 
 a considerable number of linguistic vsystems ; and he proceeds : 
 " The consequence of this fact is important. If, as we have shown, 
 the faculty of articulate speech is the projjcr and the sole charac- 
 teristic of man, and if the different linguistic systems, which we 
 know, are irreducil)le, they must have come into existence sepa- 
 rately, in regions entirely distinct. It follows tiiat the precursor of 
 man, the first to acquire the faculty of articulate language, has 
 gained this faculty' in different j)laces at the same time, and has 
 thus given birth to many human races originally distinct." 
 
8 SECTION H. 
 
 Dr. Frederick Mlillcr, whoso noble work, "The Outline of Linguis- 
 tic Science " ( GrniHlriss (kr iSprac/i ir !nnensch((ff) , is for stiulcnts of 
 our time wiiat the " Mithridiitcb" of Addung luid V'atcr was to those 
 of a former generation, — the great thesaurus of pliilologic research 
 and analysis, — not only maintains this view, hut lays down specifi- 
 cally the divisions of race into which the speechless descendants 
 of the primitive precursor of our kind — the homo priinhjcnius 
 (Xlalus — had separated before the}' acquired the faculty of langunge. 
 Yet, notwithstanding the weight which may be justly given to the 
 opinions of such high authorities, it may bo afllrmed in this case, 
 as in the case of the earlier theories, that the difliculties raised by 
 the hypothesis are immeasurably greater than those which it is 
 designed to remove. 
 
 The number of totally different linguistic stocks, so far as now 
 known, is at the lowest comi)utation over two hundred ; and of 
 these the greater portion belong to the western continent. The 
 theory- now under consideration supposes that both continents were 
 in early times inhabited throughout by beings resembling men, but 
 incapable of s|)eech. It is evident that the process of this wide dis- 
 persion of l)oiiigs in that serai-brutal condition must have occupied 
 a vast space of time. We are reciuired to believe that suddeidy and 
 separately, with no common impulse or cause, but at one time, all 
 these scatiored tribes, which had existed for countless ages without 
 language, fortuitously acquired the facult}' of speech, invented each 
 its own language, and began to converse. Such a stupendous 
 event — the sinndtaneous acquisition, by more than two luuuli'cd 
 distinct communities of speechless beings, of the facult}' which 
 specially distinguishes man from the brute — would well deserve 
 to be styled miracidous. 
 
 To come down to specific particulars, — many years ago, in mak- 
 ing the first ethnographical survey of Oregon, I found that there 
 were in that region no less than twelve linguistic stocks, — that 
 is, families of languages as distinct from one another in words 
 and grammar as the Semitic family is from the Indo-J^uropean. 
 The able linguists of the Bureau of Ethnology, INIessrs. Gatschet 
 and Dorsey, have made further investigations in this region, and 
 have visited portions of it which I was unable to reach. Their re- 
 searches have confirmed m}' classification, and have added two or 
 three additional stocks. South of this district, Mr. Stephen Powers, 
 in his excellent Report on California, published by the same Bureau, 
 
ADDUESS nv HORATIO HALE. 9 
 
 has continued Ibo survey in tUat direction, and has found sixteen 
 additional linguistic stocks (besides three of the Oregon stocks) 
 within the liuills of that State. Thus, in a region not much larger 
 than France, we find at least thirty distinct families of languagt's 
 existing together. We are expecteil to believe that tliirty sepai'ale 
 communities of speechless precursors of men, after living side by 
 side in this inarticulate condition for an indelluite period, sudilenly 
 and sinuiltaneonsly acquired the power of speech, and began at 
 once to talk in thirty distinct languages. The mere statement of 
 this grotesque proposition seems sullicient to refute it. 
 
 AVhile some of the ablest reasoners have thus been groping 
 vaguely and blindly, in wrong directions, for the solution of this 
 problem, and while others, like Humboldt und Whitney, hi' /e given 
 it up in despair, the simple and sufllcicnt explanation has been 
 lying close at hand, awaiting oidy, like many other discoveries in 
 science, the observation of some facts of common occurrence to 
 bring it to light. In the present case, the two ol)servers who have 
 made the conclusive facts known to us have both been Americans, 
 and both of them writers of more than ordinary intelligence ; but 
 both were entirely unknown in this branch of investigation, and 
 both, moreover, had the singular ill-fortinie of pul^lisliing their ob- 
 servations in works of such limited circulation that tlieir important 
 contributions to science have hitherto failed to attain the notice 
 they deserved. Their observations were made at about the same 
 time, nearly twenty jears ago, but published at different dates, — 
 the first in 18(58, the second ten ^-ears later. It was the latter i)ub- 
 lication which first attracted my attention, soon after its appearance, 
 and led to a course of study and inquiry resulting in the facts and 
 conclusions now to be detailed. 
 
 Before setting forth the facts, it will be well to state at once the 
 result of the inquiry. Briefly, then, the plain conclusion to which 
 all the observations point with irresistible force is, that the origin 
 of linguistic stocks is to be found in what may be termed the lan- 
 guage-making instinct of very young children. P'rom numerous 
 cases, of which the history has been traced, it appears that, when 
 two children who are just beginning to speak are left much to- 
 gether, they sometimes invent a complete language, suflicient for 
 all purposes of mutual intercourse, and yet totally unintelligible to 
 their parents and others about them. It is evident that, in an ordi- 
 nary household, the conditions under which such a language would 
 
10 SECTION II. 
 
 be formed are most likely to occur in the case of twins. One 
 of the most remurkiible instances is thiit of wliicli a record has 
 been preserved in oneof tlie publications to which reference has been 
 made. Tliis is a volume, published in lH7f<, by iMi.ss E. II. Watson, 
 a lady of Boston, the authoress of several esteemed works on histor- 
 ical sul)Jects. In performing the pious duty of giving to the world 
 an essay by her father, the late tieorge Watson, on "• The Structure 
 of Language, and the Uniform Notation and Classification of \'ow- 
 cls for all Languages," the eilitress has prefixed to it two essays 
 of her own, on ''The Origin of Language," ami on " Spelling Re- 
 form," which show evidence of much reading and thought, and con- 
 tain many valuable suggestions. The volume bears the peculiar 
 title, apparently adopted by JMr. Watson, of " The I'niverse of 
 Language," ami api)earcd under the ausi)ices of the now defunct 
 "Authors' Publishing .Company," by whose lapse most of the 
 edition was cast back upon the hands of the e<iitress, and thus 
 failed to obtain the attention uud credit which its value should 
 have insured. 
 
 The llrst of ^liss Watson's essays in this volume comprises, in 
 especial, one contribution to scientilic knowledge, — her account of 
 the *' children's language," — which she justly tleemeil to be of great 
 value, and which is perhaiis even more im[)ortant than she sup- 
 posed. It is presented by her as bearing upon the (luestion of the 
 origin of human speech. While it has undoubtedly a real interest 
 in this respect, its main value resides in the light which it easts on 
 the origin of linguistic stocks. There is nothing in the example 
 which t'lcaily i)roves that the children in question woiihl have 
 spoken at all if they had not heard their parents and others about 
 them comnuiiiicating b}' oral souiuls, — though we may, on good 
 grounds (as will be shown), believe that they woukl ha\e done so. 
 What the case really establishes is, that children who have thus 
 learned to speak ma}' invent a language of their own, dilferent from 
 all that they hear around them, and yet adecpiate to all the purposes 
 of speech. 
 
 In the year 18G0 two children, twin boys, were born in a respect- 
 able family residing in a suburb of IJoston. The}' were in part of 
 Clerman descent, their mother's father having come from Germany 
 to Aimrica at the age of seventeen ; but the (lerman language, we 
 are told, was never spoken in the household. The chiklren were so 
 closely alike that their grandmother, who often came to sec them. 
 
ADUHESS BY HORATIO IIALK. 11 
 
 coulil only distinguish Ihoni by some colored string or ribbon tied 
 annind the arm. As ol'teii happens in such cases, an intense aflee- 
 tion existed between tiiem, and tiiey were constantly together. 
 The remainder of their interesting story will be best told in the 
 words of the writer, to whose enlightened zeal for science we arc 
 indebted for our knowledge of the facts. She thus relates it : — 
 
 " At the usual age these twins began to talk, but, strange to say, 
 •xot their ' mother-tongue.* The\- had a language of their own, and 
 no i)ains could induce them to si)cak anything else. It was in vain 
 that a little sister, five years older than they, tried to make them 
 speak their ^;rf;/j>e htngxuuje, — as it would have been. They per- 
 sistently refused to utter a syllable of English. Not even the usual 
 fn-st words, ' pa[)a,' ' mamma,' ' father,' ' mother,' it is said, did they 
 ever speak ; ami, said the lady who gave this infoiination to the 
 writer, — who was an aunt of the children, and whose home was 
 with them, — they were never known during this interval to call 
 their mother by that name. They had their own name for her, but 
 never the English. In fact, though thc\- had the usual alleclions, 
 were rejoiced to see their fatlier at his returning home each night, 
 playing with him, etc., they would seem to have been otherwise 
 completely takvii up, absorbed with each otlier. . . . The children 
 had not yet been to school ; for, not being able to speak their ' own 
 English,' it seemed impossible to send them from home. Tluy 
 thus passed the days, playing and talking together in their own 
 speech, with all the liveliness and voluliilit}' of common children. 
 Their accent was Gti'UKOi, — as it seemed to the family. Tiiey 
 had regular words, a few of wiiich the family K'arned sometimes to 
 distinguish ; as that, for exami)le, for carriage, which, on hearing 
 one pass in the street, they W'ould exclaim out, and run to tlic 
 window." 
 
 Tills word for carriage, we are told in another place, was nl-si- 
 i}()0-(i, of which, it is added, the syllal)les were sometimes so repeated 
 that the}' made a nmcli longer word. This, unfortunately, is the 
 onl}' word of the language which Miss Watson was able to ascer- 
 tain ; but even from this one example some interesting inferences 
 may be drawn. The sp«'i'eh was plainly not monosyllaliic ; and the 
 word in (juestion is neither English nor (Jerman. In the conclml- 
 ing syllables, if lengthened b}' repetition, we may perhaps discern 
 an attemfitto imitate the rumbling of a carriage. '' The children,' 
 we are told, " went in the family by the name of the little ' Dutch 
 
12 SECTION 11. 
 
 bo3's ' ; and the father, at first inquiry of the wfiter, called their 
 speech ' a mixture of German and English.' But the chiUIren at 
 that time had never hoard any German spoken ; therefore it could 
 not have been the former ; and if some English words were picked 
 ui) — as would be but probable — the}' seem to have been so trans- 
 formed that they were not recognizable as such, unless rarely. . . . 
 Tlie mother relates that, although she could not understand their 
 language, she contrived, by attention, to discover what they wished 
 or meant." 
 
 If the quick car of a mother, after years of intercourse, could 
 not discern the English words, it is clear that the}- were not used 
 in a form which would have proi)erly entitled them to that name. 
 The important information is added, that, "even in that early 
 stage, the language was complete and full ; that is, it was all that 
 was needed. The children were at no loss to exi)rcss themselves 
 in their plays, their ' chattcrings ' with each other, as our inform- 
 ant expressed it, all day. Indeed, the writer would gather from 
 the description given that they were more than usually animated 
 between themselves." 
 
 The sequel of the story, as graphically told by the authoress, has 
 an interest, as showing that the language spoken around these 
 children was to them really a foreign speech. " It finally seeming 
 hopeless that they were going to learn their ' own tongue,' as we 
 call it, it was concluded to send them to school in the neighbor- 
 hood, they being now six or seven years old. For a week, as the 
 lady teacher described to whom they were sent, they were perfectly 
 mute ; not a sound could be heard from them, but they sat with 
 their eyes intently fixed upon the children, seeming to be watching 
 their every motion, — and, no doubt, listening to every sound. At 
 the end of that time they were induced to utter some words, and 
 gradually and naturally they began, for the first time, to learn their 
 ' native English.' With this accomplishment, the other began, 
 also naturally, to fade away, until the memory, with the use of it, 
 passed from their mind." 
 
 We cannot but share in the regret expressed by the accomi)lished 
 authoress that she was not acquainted with these facts until it was 
 too late to preserve a record of the language itself, which, it is 
 evident, would have been of great scientific interest. Indeed, but 
 for the facts now to be related, a suspicion might naturally remain, 
 in spite of all that is said of the total strangeness of the children's 
 
ADDRESS BY HORATIO HALE. 13 
 
 speech, that it was, after all, onh' an exaggerated specimen of 
 ordinary " baby-talk," — a mere babble of imi)erfcc't English, 
 mixed with some mimicries of r.utural sounds. Most fortuiiatcly, 
 another example atl'ords the precise evidence required to dispel all 
 such suspicion. Though in the case now to be described the 
 circumstances were somewhat dific'rent, and the language was 
 probabl}- less complete than in the instance just recorded, yet it 
 happened, by good fortune, that a careful and scicutiiic observer 
 was in a position to preserve at least a portion of it for oin* infor- 
 mation. "While these interesting twins were chattoiing their pecu- 
 liar language in Boston, a little four-year-old girl and her jounger 
 brother in Albany were perplexing their parents by a similar 
 vagary. A clear and satisfactory account of this phenomenon was 
 given by the late E. R. Ilun, M.I)., of that city, in an article pub- 
 lished in the ^Monthly Journal of Psychological Medicine (in the 
 volume for IHOS). under the title of "Singular Development of 
 Language in a Child." For my knowledge of tiiis most important 
 evidence, as well as for man}" otiier valnal)le suggestions, l have to 
 thank our distinguished associate, Dr. Brinton, whose attention no 
 essential fact relating to his favorite sciences is likely to escape. 
 
 The statements with which Dr. Ilnn commences his account are 
 too succinct to be abridged. "The snbject of this observation," 
 he writes, " is a girl aged four and a half years, sprightly, intelli- 
 gent, and in good health. The mother observed, when she was 
 two years old, that she was backward in speaking, and only used 
 the words 'papa' and 'mamma.' After that slie began to use 
 words of her own invention, and though she understood readily 
 what was said, never employed the words used bv others. Clrad- 
 uall}" she enlarged her vocabulary nntil it has reached the extent 
 described below. She has a brother eighteen months younger than 
 herself, who has learned her language, so that thej- talk freel}' 
 together. He, however, seems to have adopted it only because he 
 has more intercourse with her than with others ; and in some in- 
 stances he will use a proper Avord with his mother, and his sister's 
 word with her. She, however, persists in using only her own 
 words, though her parents, who are uneas}- about her peculiarity 
 of speech, make great efforts to induce her to use proper words. 
 As to the possibility of her having learned these words from 
 others, it is proper to state that her |)arents are pci'sons of cultiva- 
 tion, who use only the English language. The mother has learned 
 
14 SECTION II. 
 
 French, but never uses the language in conversation. The domes- 
 tics, as well as the nurses, speali English without aii}' peculiarities, 
 and the child has heard even less than usual of what is called 
 baby-talk. Some of the words and phrases have a resemblance to 
 tlic French ; but it is certain that no person using that language 
 has frequented the house, and it is doubtful whether the child has 
 on any occasion heard it spoken. Tliere seems to be no difliculty 
 about the vocal organs. She uses her language readily and freel}-, 
 and when she is with her brother they converse with great rapidity 
 and fluency." 
 
 Dr. Ilun then gives the vocabulary, which, he states, was such 
 as he had " been able at different times to compile from the child 
 herself, and especially from the report of her mother." From this 
 statement we may infer that the list probably did not include the 
 whole number of words in this child-language. It comprises, in fact, 
 only twenty-one distinct words, thougli nuiu}- of these were used in 
 a great variety of acceptations, indicated by the order in which 
 they were ari'anged, or by comi)ounding them in various ways. As 
 we know, however, on excellent autiioritv, that the conversation 
 of English laborers has been found to be carried on with no more 
 than a hundred words, we may believe that the talk of the children 
 might be fluent enough with a much more limited vocabulary. " I 
 once listened," — writes Archdeacon Farrar, in his work on '"Lan- 
 guage and Languages," — *■* for a long time together to the conver- 
 sation of three peasants who were gathering apples among the 
 boughs of an orchard, and, as far as I could conje-jture, the whole 
 number of words they used did not exceed a hiuidred ; the same 
 word was made to serve a variety of purposes." This, it will be 
 seen, was exactly the case with the language of these children. 
 
 Three or four of the words, as Dr. Ilun remarks, bear an evident 
 resemblance to the French, and others might, by a slight change, 
 be traced to that language. He was unable, it will be seen, to 
 say positively that the girl had never heard the language spoken ; 
 and it seems not unlikely that, if not among the domestics, at 
 least among the persons who visited them, there may have been 
 one who amused herself, innocently enough, by teaching the child 
 a few words of that tongue. It is, indeed, by no means improba- 
 ble that the peculiar linguistic instinct may thus have been first 
 aroused in the mind of the girl, when just beginning to speak. 
 Among the words showing this resemblance are fi-u (pronounced, 
 
ADDRESS BY HOKATIO IIALK. lii 
 
 we arc expressly told, like the French word), used to signify " fire, 
 light, cigar, sun"; too (the French tout), meaning "all, every- 
 thing " ; and ne pa (whether i)ronounced as in French, or other- 
 wise, we arc not told), signifying "not." J'etee-petee, the name 
 given to the boy bj- his sister, is apparently the French ^)e^7, 
 little ; and ma, I, may be from the French moi, me. If, however, 
 the child was rcall}' able to catch and remember so readily these 
 foreign sounds at such an early age, and to interweave then) into a 
 speech of her own, it would merely show how readily and strongl}- 
 in her case the language-making faculty was developed. 
 
 Of words formed by imitation of sounds, the language shows 
 barely a trace. The mewing of the cat evidently suggested the 
 word ine((, which signified both cat and furs. For the other voca- 
 bles which make up this speech, no origin can be conjectured. We 
 can merel}' notice that in some of the words the liking which 
 children and some races of men have for the repetition of sounds is 
 apparent. Thus we have tni(/no-9niffiio, signifying " water, wash, 
 bath"; f/o-ffo, "delicacies, as sugar, cand}', or dessert"; and 
 waid-ioaiar, " black, darkness, or a negro." There is. as will bo 
 seen from these examples, no si)ecial tendenc}' to the monosyllabic 
 form. Gunnnvjar, we are told, signifies " all the substantial of 
 the table, such as bread, meat, vegetables, etc." ; and the same 
 word is used to designate the cook. The boy, it is added, docs 
 not use this word, but uses giia-migna, which the girl considers a 
 mistake. From which we may gather that even at that tender age 
 the form of their language had become with them an object of 
 thought ; and we ma}' infer, moreover, that the language was not 
 invented solely b}- the girl, but that both the children contril^utcd 
 to frame it. 
 
 Of miscellaneous words may be mentioned gar, " horse" ; cleer, 
 " money of any kind " ; hecr, " literature, books, or school " ; ^wtr, 
 " ball" ; hau, " soldier, music" ; odo,, " to send for, to go out, to 
 take away"; kch, "to soil"; jm-ma, "to go to sleep, pillow, 
 bed." The varietj- of acceptations which each word was capable of 
 receiving is exemplified in many ways. Thus feu might become 
 an adjective, as ne-jyafeu, " not warm." The verb odo had many 
 meanings, according to its position or the words which accom- 
 panied it. Ma odo^ "I (want to) go out": r/dr odo, '"send for 
 the horse"; too odo, "all gone." Gadii signified (iod ; and we 
 arc told, " When it rains, the children often run to the window, 
 
IG SECTION n. 
 
 and call out, Gafin odo migno-mi pno, feu odn, wbioli means, ' Go<l 
 take away the rain, and send the sun ' ; odo bclbre the object 
 meaning ' to take away,' and after the object, "to send.'" l<rom 
 this remark and example we learn, not merely that the lai.^aiage 
 had — as all real languages must have — its rules of construction, 
 but that these were sometimes dilferent l'i"in the Kngllsh rules. 
 This also apijcars in the form >nta ic(iia-w<n'<n', "• dark furs " (lit- 
 erally, '* I'urs dark "), where the adjective follows its substantive. 
 
 The odd and unexpected associations which in all languages 
 govern the meaning of words arc ai)i)arcnt in this brief vocabu- 
 lary. "We can gather from it that the parents were Catholics, and 
 punctual in church observances. The words ^?(/^)a and niam))ui 
 were used separately in their ordinary sense ; but when linked 
 together in the compound term juipa-inatimm, the}- signified (ac- 
 cording to the connection, wo may i)resume) " church, prayer- 
 book, cross, priest, to say their prayers." liau was "soldier"; 
 but, we are told, from seeing the bishop in his mitre and vest- 
 ments, thinking lie was a soklier, thej- applied the word bau to him. 
 Gd)' odo properly* signified "send for the horse"; but as the 
 children frequentl}' saw their father, when a carriage was wanted, 
 write an order and send it to the stable, they came to use the same 
 expression {ffcir odo) for pencil and paper. 
 
 There is no appearance of inflection, properl}' speaking, in the 
 language ; and this is only what might be expected. Very young 
 children rarely use inflected forms in ain' language. The English 
 child of tliree or four years says, " IMar^' cup," for " IVIary's cup" ; 
 and " Dog bite IIarr\' " will represent every tense and mood. It is 
 by no means improbable that, if the children had continued to use 
 their own language for a few years longer, inflections would have 
 been developed in it, as we see that peculiar forms of construction 
 and novel compounds — which are the germs of inflection — had 
 already- made their appearance. 
 
 These two recorded instances of child-languages have led to fur- 
 ther iiuiuiries, which, though pursued only for a brief period, and in 
 a limited field, have shown that cases of this sort are by no means 
 uncommon. An esteemed physician of my acquaintance, whose 
 childhood was passed in the city of Kingston, Ontario, has informed 
 me of a case within his own knowledge wiiich bears a remarkable 
 resemblance to that of the Albany children. It occurred in that 
 city nearl}' thirty years ago, when my informant was about seven 
 
ADDRESS BY HORATIO HALK. 17 
 
 j'cars old ; but his recollection of it is perfectly dislinot. A widower 
 with several children, one of whom was a boy between four and 
 five years old, married a widow with a single child, — a girl, some- 
 what younger than the bo}-. Tlioy lived directly opposite the 
 residence of m^- friend's parents, airl he knew the children inti- 
 matel}'. The boy was unusually bad .,ard in his speech, and at the 
 time of the marriage spoke imperfectl}-. lie and the little girl soon 
 became inseparal)le playmates, and formed a language of tiieir own, 
 which was unintelligible to the'r parents and friends. 'J'hey had 
 names of their own invention for all the objects about thorn, and 
 must have had a corresponding supply of verbs and other parts 
 of speech, as their talk was fluent and incessant. My informant, 
 with his brother and the other children who lived near them, often 
 listened to this chatter with great amusemoiit. and came at last to 
 recognize a number of the most common ( v^iressions. The only 
 one which he can now remember was tlie word for cat, which 
 fastened itself in his mind I)}' its oddity. Tiie little philologists 
 had a favorite cat, which tliej* often held aloft for the admiration of 
 the spectators across the street, shouting to them its extraordinary 
 name of shindikiJc. This term, like the solitary word preserved 
 of the speech of the Boston children, proves at least that the lan- 
 guage had passed beyond the infantile or Chinese stage, when ever}' 
 word is a monosyllable, usuall}* ending in a vowel. The mother of 
 the little girl became at length so much dis(juieted by the persistency 
 of the children in refusing to speak English, that she finally re- 
 sorted to the expedient of sei)aratiiig them, and placed the daughter 
 for a time under the care of a relative residing at a distance. The 
 children soon forgot their al)normal speech, and, as both the par- 
 ents are dead, it is not likel}' that any more relics of it will be 
 recovered. 
 
 How soon such memories fade from the minds of both speakers 
 and hearers, and how little attention such incidents attract, is shown 
 by another case, which occurred some twenty years ago in the fam- 
 ily of one of my nearest neighbors and friends, but was so little 
 noticed that I had never heard of it until the present jear. In 
 this family the two 3-oungest children — a bo}' and a girl — were 
 twins, and as usually hap[)ens, were left much together. When 
 thej' were three or four years old they were accustomed, as their 
 elder sister informs me, to talk together in a language which no 
 one else understood. The other members of the family called it 
 
 2 
 
18 SECTION II. 
 
 their " gibberish," but otherwise paid little attention to it. The 
 fiitl.cr would sometimes say, " Hear those chiklreu chMtteririg ! " 
 and the other members of the family \»onld listen, and smile at the 
 stream of unintelligible sounds. The twins were wont to ehmb into 
 their father's carriage in the stable, and " chatter awaj," as my in- 
 formant says, for hours in this strange language. Their sister 
 remembers that it sounded as though tiie words were quite short. 
 But the single word which survives in the family recollection is a 
 dissyllable, — the word for milk, which was cully. Tlie little girl 
 accompanied her speech with gestures, but the bo}' did not. As 
 the}- grew older, they gradually gave up their peculiar speech. The 
 boy is dead. The girl, now an intelligent and accomplished young 
 lad}', has totall}' forgotten the words of their childish speech, though 
 she remembers well the fact of using it and the amusement it ex- 
 cited. She remembers also that the others spoke of them as " talk- 
 ing Scotch," or "in Scotch fasliion." Their futlicr, a well-educated 
 professional gentleman, was of Scottish birth, but had lived much 
 in England ; and neither he nor any of the children had any marked 
 accent differing from that of ordinary' English speech. 
 
 A case Avliich recalls that of the Boston boys is related to rac by 
 a lad}' friend who was educated in Toronto. She remembers per- 
 fectly well the amusement caused, in the school which she attended 
 in her early childhood, by two little boys, sons of a wealthy gentle- 
 man of that city, who were accustomed to converse together in a 
 language of their own. Their ages were about five or six, one 
 being somewhat more than a year older than the other. The 
 youngest, however, was slightly the taller of the two. The}' were 
 line, intelligent boys, and were always together, both at home and 
 in the school. My informant knew the family, which was a rather 
 large one, — five boys and a girl. These children were left much 
 to themselves, and had a language of their own, in which they 
 always conversed. The other children in the school used to listen 
 to them as they chattered together, and laugh heartily at the 
 strange speech of which they could not understand a word. The 
 boys spoke P^nglish with difficulty, and very imperfectly, like per- 
 sons struggling to express their ideas in a foreign tongue. In 
 speaking it, tiiey had to eke out their words with many gestures 
 and signs to make themselves understood ; but in talking together 
 in their own language, they used no gestures, and spoke very 
 fluently. She remembers that the words which they used seemed 
 
ADDUESS IIY IIOUATIO iA!-K. 19 
 
 quite short. In imitating from memory tlieir mode of speech she 
 uses monosyUubles. Tliey had a nurse, an intelligent nvddle-ajred 
 woman, who brought tlicm to the sciiool in the morning, and came 
 for them in the afternoon. She hail had the care of them fiom in- 
 fancy, md understood their language, but did not speak it. She was 
 accustomed to speak to them in Knglish, and the}- would reply to 
 her in their own tongue. They learned but little at the school, and 
 had api)arently been sent there chiefly to accustora them to he with 
 children of their own age, and to learn to speak like them. ]\ly 
 friend knew them in after life, as grown-up young men, when they 
 s[)oke English like other people. 
 
 But it is needless to multiply examples. The instances thus 
 recorded do not b\' any means exhaust the list. I have not yet 
 had the fortunate opportunit}' — which Dr. Ilim enjoyed and used 
 to such good advantage — of personally hearing and investigating 
 such a child-language. But as it is evident that its development is 
 not a fact of ver}- rare occurrence, we ma}- hope, now that atten- 
 tion has been drawn to the matter, that this interesting subject of 
 inquiry will soon be thoroughly studied by competent observers. 
 These cases, it must be remembered, are, after all, merely intensi- 
 fied forms of a phenomenon which is of constant recurrence. The 
 inclination of very young children to employ words and forms of 
 si)eecli of their own is well known, though it is onl^' under peculLir 
 circumstances that this language acquires the extent and the perma- 
 nence which it attained in the cases now recorded. Along with 
 this inclination of children, a corresiX)nding disposition of their 
 elders in conversing with them will be noticed. The " babj'-talk " 
 in which mothers and nurses in all communities, civilized and 
 savage, are wont to indulge, is in some respects totalh' distinct 
 from their ordinar\' speech. It is utterly devoid of inflections, of 
 articles, and of pronouns, has its own pronunciation, its own syntax 
 and construction, and man^- peculiar words. The imi)ortance of 
 this baby-talk as an element of linguistic science has been recog- 
 nized by eminent scientific investigators. Dr. Tylor, in the fifth 
 chapter of his work on " Primitive Culture," touches ujjon this sub- 
 ject with some noteworthy remarks and suggestions, of which the 
 general tenor is strikingh- confirmed by the speech of the Albany 
 children. " Children's language," he observes, " may give a valu- 
 able lesson to the philologist." After quoting many examples of 
 infantile words in use in various countries, he' adds : " In this 
 
20 SECTION U. 
 
 langiingc, the theory of root-sounds fairly breaks down." " It is 
 obvious," he coutiiuies, '• that the loading principle of their forma- 
 tion is, not to adopt words distinguished hy tlie expressive eharac- 
 ter of their sound, but to choose somehow a fixed word to answer 
 a given purpose." So Mr. George P. Marsh, in his "Lectures on 
 the English Language," remarks, that tiie question whether the 
 power of speech is a faculty or an art may be answered, " in a gen- 
 eral way, by saying that the use of articulate language is a faculty 
 inherent in man, though we cannot often detect any natural and 
 necessary connection between a particular object and the vocal 
 sound by which this or that people presents it." And he adds: 
 "There can be little doubt that a colony of children, reared with- 
 out hearing sounds uttered by those around them, would at length 
 form for themselves a speech." Man}' other citations might bo 
 made, showing that philologists have more than once been fairl}* on 
 the track of the cause to which the origin of linguistic families is 
 due. If thej- have failed to follow to its conclusion the path into 
 which their intuitions had led them, it has simply been from lack 
 of the evidence now at hand. 
 
 In the light of the facts which have now been set forth, it becomes 
 evident that, to insure the creation of a speech which shall be the 
 parent of a new linguistic stock, all that is needed is that two or 
 more 30ung children should be placed by themselves in a condition 
 where they will be entirely, or in a large degree, free from the pres- 
 ence and influence of their elders. The}' must, of course, continue 
 in this condition long enough to grow up, to form a household, and 
 to have descendants to whom they can communicate their new 
 speech. We have only to inquire under what circumstances an 
 occurrence of this nature can be expected to take place. 
 
 There was once a time when no beings endowed with articulate 
 speech existed on this planet. When such beings appeared, whether 
 at one centre or at several, the spread of this human population 
 over the earth would necessarily be gradual. So very slow and 
 gradual, indeed, has it been, that many outlying tracts — Iceland, 
 Madeira, the Azores, the Mauritius, St. Helena, the Falkland 
 Islands, Bounty Island, and others — have only been peopled 
 within recent historical times, and some of them during the present 
 century. This diffusion of population would take place in various 
 wa^'s, and under many different impulses ; — sometimes as the 
 natural result of increase and overcrowding, sometimes through the 
 
ADDRESS «Y IIOKATIO HALE. 21 
 
 dispersion caused by wars, frequently from a spirit of adventure, 
 and oecasionully Ity accident, as wlien a canoe was drifted on an 
 unknown shore. In most instances, a considerable party, compris- 
 in<^ many families, would emigrate together. Such a party would 
 carr}' their language with them ; and the change of speech which 
 their isolation would produce would be merely a dialectical dilfer- 
 encc, such as distinguishes the (Ireek from the Sanscrit, or the 
 Ethiopic from the Arabic. The basis of the language would remain 
 the same. No length of time, so far as can be inferred from the 
 present state of our knowledge, would sullice to disguise the re- 
 semblance indicating the common origin of such diulect-languages. 
 IJut there is another mode in which the spread of population might 
 take i)lace, that would lead in this respect to a very different result. 
 If a single pair, man and wife, should wander olf into an uniidial)- 
 ited region, and there, after a few years, both jjerish, leaving a fani- 
 il}- of young ehihlren to grow up by themselves and frame their 
 own speech, the facts which have been adduced will show that this 
 speech migiit, and probably would, be an entirely novel language. 
 Its inflections would certainl}' be different from those of the parent 
 tongue, because the speech of children under five years of age has 
 commonly no inflections. The great mass of vocables, also, would 
 probably be new. The strong language-making instinct of the 
 younger children would be suflicient to overpower an}- feeble niem- 
 or}' which their older companions might retain of the parental 
 idiom. The natural disposition of the oldest child, indeed, would 
 be to yield to the youngest in this regard. lie would feel it to be 
 essential that he should make his little brother or sister understand 
 him, and he would adopt without hesitation any manner of speech 
 that would insure this object. The bab3-talk the " children's lan- 
 guage," would become the mother-tongue of the new community, 
 and of the nation that would spring from it. 
 
 Those who are familiar with the habits of the hunting tribes of 
 America know how common it is for single families to wander off 
 from the main band in this manner, — sometimes following the 
 game, sometimes exiled for offences against the tribal law, some- 
 times impelled by the all-powerful passion of love, when the man 
 and woman belong to families or classes at deadly feud or forbid- 
 den to intermarry. In these latter cases, the object of the fugitives 
 would be to place as wide a space as possible between themselves 
 and their irate kindred. In modern times, when the whole country 
 
22 
 
 HECTION II. 
 
 is occupied, tlic'ir (light would incrcly carry tlicni Into the territory 
 oriuiotiicr trilio, among whom, if well receivtHJ, they would (luiciily 
 he ahsorlu'd. Jlut in tlie primitive period, when a vast uniniialiited 
 region slrcU'iied heCore tiiem, it would l)e easy for tiieni to fnid 
 some shi'llen-d nook or IVuilful valU'v, in wiiich tliey might hope 
 to remain secure, ami rear their young brood unmolested by human 
 neighbors. 
 
 If, under such circumstances, disease or the casualties of a hinit- 
 cr's lif(! should carry olf the parents, the survival of the children 
 would, it is evident, depend mainly upon the nature of the climato 
 and the ease with which food could i»e procured at all seasons of the 
 year. In ancient Europe, after the present dimatal conditions were 
 established, it is doubtfid if a family of children under ten years of 
 age could hav(^ lived through a single winter. We are not, there- 
 fore, surprised to fnid that no more than four or five linguistic stocks 
 are rei)resented in Europe, and that all of them, except the Basque, 
 are believed, on good evidence, to have been of comparatively late 
 intrfxluction. Even the IJasque is traced by some, with nuicli prol)a- 
 bility, to a source in North Africa. Of northern America, east of 
 the liocky INIountains and north of the tropics, the same may bo 
 said. The climate and the scarcity of food in winter f(nl)id us to 
 8upi)0se that a brood of orphan children could have survived, ex- 
 cept possil)ly, b}- a fortunate chance, in some favored spot on the 
 shore of the Mexican Ciulf, where .she 11- fish, berries, and edible 
 roots arc abundant and easy of access. 
 
 IJut there is one region where Nature seems to offer herself as 
 the willing nurse and bountiful step-mother of the feeble and unpro- 
 tected. Of all coimtries on the globe, there is probably not one in 
 which a little Hock of ver}' j'oung children would find the means of 
 sustaining existence more readil}' than in California. Its wonder- 
 ful climate, mild and cfpiable beyond example, is well known. Mr. 
 Cronise, in his volume on the "Natural Wealth of California," tells 
 us, that " the monthly mean of the thermometer at San Eraneisco 
 in December, the coldest month, is 50° ; in September, the warm- 
 est month, Gl°." And he adds : " Although the State reaches 
 to the latitude of Plymouth Bay on the north, the climate, for its 
 whole length, is as mild as that of the regions near the tropics. 
 Half the months are rainless. Snow and ice are almost strangers, 
 except in the high altitudes. There are fully two hundred cloud- 
 less da3-s in every year. Roses bloom in the open air through all 
 
AUDUK88 BY UOUATIO IIALK. 23 
 
 seasons." Not less roniarkiiblo than tliis exiinisitc flnnate is tbo 
 astonisliing variety of food, of iiinds whifli sooni to oiler themselves 
 to the tender hands of ehililren, IJerries of many sorts — straw- 
 berries, biaciiberries, currants, raspberries, and sahnon-berries — 
 are indigenous and abundiint. Large fruits and edible nuts on low 
 and penilent bouglis may be said, in ^liltoii's phrase, to " hang 
 amiable." Mr. Cronise enumerates, among others, the wild cherry 
 and plum, which " grow on bushes " ; the barberry, or false; grape 
 (lierberis herbosa), a "low shrub." which bears edible fruit; 
 and the Californian horse-chestnut (vZ<''*tv///<s (JdliJ'ornica), "a low, 
 s|)reading tree or shrub, seldom exceeding lifteon feet high," which 
 " bears abundant fruit, much used by the Indians." Then there 
 are nutritious roots of various kinds, maturing at dilferent seasons. 
 Fish swarm in the rivers, and are taken b}- the simplest means. 
 In the sin-ing, Mr. Powers informs us, the wlii elish " crowd the 
 creeks in such vast numbers that the Indians, by simply throwing 
 in a little brushwood to impede their motion, can literally scoof) 
 thoin out." Shell-llsh and grubs abound, and are grcedil}- eaten by 
 the natives. Earth-worms, which are found everywhere and at all 
 seasons, are a favorite article of diet. As to clothing, we are told 
 by the authority just cited that "• on the jjlains all adult males and 
 all children up to ten or twelve went perfectly naked, — while the 
 women wore only a narrow strip of deer-skin around the waist." 
 Need wo wonder that, in such a mild and fruitful region, a ;:;roat 
 number of separate tribes were found, speaking languages which a 
 carefid investigation has classed in nineteen distinct linguistic 
 stocks ? 
 
 The climate of the Oregon coast region, though colder than that 
 of California, is still far milder and more ctpiable than that of the 
 same latitude in the cast ; and the abundance of edible fruits, roots, 
 river-fish, and other food of easy attainment, is very great. A 
 family of young children, if one of them were old enough to take 
 care of the rest, could easily be reared to matiuity in a sheltered 
 nook of this genial and fruitful land. We are not, therefore, sur- 
 prised to find that the number of linguistic stocks in this narrow 
 district, though less than in California, is more than twice as large 
 as in the whole of Europe, and that the greater portion of these 
 stocks are clustered near the Californian boundary. 
 
 It is not, however, necessary to suppose that in every instance 
 both parents had perished. If only one of them died, leaving four 
 
24 SKCTION H. 
 
 or five children, — the oldest perhaps not more than six years old, 
 — the surviving parent, having no adult companion to converse 
 witii, would inralliltlv, as a matter of absolute necessity, adopt the 
 language of the children, and to a large extent fall in with their 
 ways of tiiought. The only differisnce would be, that when, with 
 the growth of the children in yenrs and intelligence, grammatical 
 inflections came to be gradually developed, these inflections, if not 
 the same as those of the parent's mother-tongue, Avould probably be 
 of a similar cast. Indeed, this to sor.ie extent might be expected, 
 even when both parents had perished. Some reminiscences of 
 the parental speech would probably remain with the older children, 
 and be revived and strengthened as their faculties gained force. 
 Thus we maj' account for the fact which has perplexed all inquirers, 
 that certain unexpected and sporadic resemblances, both in gram- 
 mar and in vocabulary, Avhich can hardly be deemed purely acci- 
 dental, sometimes crop ui) between the most dissimilar languages. 
 Such are the surprising resemblances between some of the Ar^'an 
 and Semitic numerals ; and such are the curious concordances be- 
 tween some of the Aryan and the IMalayo-l*olynesian roots, which 
 perplexed and for a time misled so great a philologist as IJopp. 
 Among languages of the polysj'nthetic class, few are more unlike 
 than the Algonkin, the Iro<]uois, and the Dakota ; jet in all three 
 the word for loot is almost identical. This word is «//, or, witlujut 
 the terminal consonant, si (in English orthography see). A word 
 so brief, distinct, and easy of utterance would be likely to survive 
 in the memory of an}' child of four or five years who had heard 
 it as frequently repealed by the mother as this word would cer- 
 tainly' be. 
 
 We must also remember that a certain similarity' in the form or 
 mould of all idioms spoken by tribes of the same race, even when 
 these idioms originated from such chiUl-languages, would be apt to 
 arise, partly from similarity of character and circumstanc(>s, and 
 partly from the inherited conformation of the brain. Of the former 
 class of influences, — the ellect of the environing circumstances, 
 first on the character and then on the speech, ^ — we have an elab- 
 orate and most suggestive discussion in INIr. Byrne's recent work 
 on the " Principles of the Structure of Language." As regards 
 the inherited powers of mind, we have to consider that when, 
 in any group of children, the faculty of language was strong, their 
 speech would probably develop into a highly complex idiom, like 
 
ADDUESS BY HORATIO HALE. 25 
 
 tlie Aryan, the Semitic, the Basque, or the Algonkin ; when this 
 ruculty was loss powerful, the speech would be simpler, like the 
 Malayan, the Mongol, and the Maya ; and when it was very weak, 
 the language would remain, like the Chinese and Anamese, in tlie 
 monosyllabic or infantile stage. It is proper, further, to bear in 
 mind, that a strong or weak capacity for language does not neces- 
 sarily imp]}' a corresponding strength or weakness of the other 
 intellectual powers. On this point Professor Whitney, in his " Life 
 and Growth of Language," well observes : " The Chinese is a inost 
 striking example of how a community' of a vcrj' high grade of gen- 
 eral abilit}' ma}' exhibit an extreme inaptitude for fertile linguistic 
 develo})ment. AVe ma}' suitably compare this with the grades of 
 aptitude shown bj' various races for plastic, or pictorial, or nnisical 
 art, which by no means measure their capacity for other intellectual 
 or spiritual products." 
 
 A glance at other linguistic provinces will show how aptly this 
 explanation of the origin of language-stocks evei'jwhere applies. 
 Tropical Brazil is a region which combines perpetual summer with 
 a profusion of edible fruits and other varieties of food, not less 
 abundant than in California. Here, if anywhere, there should be a 
 great number of totallv distinct languages. We learn on the best 
 authority, that of Baron J. J. von Tschudi, in the Introduction to 
 his recent work on the "Organism of the Khetshua Language," 
 that this is the fact. He says : "I possess a collection made by 
 the well-known naturalist, Joh. Natterer, during his residence of 
 many years in Brazil, of more than a hundred languages, lexically 
 completel}' distinct, from the interior of Brazil." And he adds : 
 " The number of so-called isolated languages — that is, of such as, 
 according to our present information, show no relationship to any 
 other, and which therefore form distinct stocks of greater or less 
 extent — is in vSouth America very large, and must, on an approx- 
 imate estimate, amount to manj' hundreds. It will perhaps be pos- 
 sible hereafter to include many of them in larger families, but there 
 nuist still remain a considerable number for which this will not be 
 possible." 
 
 The explanation which the learned writer gives of this great 
 diversity of languages is that which has been heretofore received 
 by most philologists. "The cause of this remarkable i)henomenon," 
 he writes, "is evidentl}' to be found in the subdivision of the 
 Indian population. The evidence of language leads to the conclu- 
 
2G SECTION H. 
 
 sion that the separation of families and tribes from the main body 
 of the descendants of the first in-comers must have taken place in 
 A-ery early times. In their wanderings toward the south, the de- 
 scendants of these straggling hordes must have separated again 
 and again. Many of them may have been brought into positions 
 wliicli were remote from the great lines of migration, may there 
 liave remained more or less isolated, may have naturally, in their 
 new relations and surroundings, formed a new vocabulary, and 
 have cast aside and forgotten much of their old speech as useless 
 in their new circumstances. But this forgetting and new-making 
 took place not only in the names given to objects, but in all lin- 
 guistic expressions as well, including the structure of words and 
 sentences. Languages wholly- new arose. Frequentl}' a single 
 family, which broke off from the horde, and moved away in a 
 separate course, has given rise to an entirel}' new speech " 
 
 If by the phrase " a single family-" we could understand such a 
 group of young children as has just been described, this explanation 
 would exactly accord with the view proposed in this i)aper. Tliis, 
 however, is evidently not the writer's moaning ; and, with all due 
 deierence to the eminent and justly esteemed author, I may venture 
 to aflirm that the process which he describes is opposed to all expe- 
 rience and observation. There is no Instance known of a ti'ibe 
 or family of grown-up persons losing their original language in 
 the way he has supposed. The branches of the great IMalayo- 
 Polynesian family, scattered over a thousand islands, large and 
 small, from ^Madagascar to Hawaii, have retained evcrywliere the 
 mass of their vocabulary anil grammar with remarkable uniformity. 
 The thorough analyses furnished by Dr. F. Miillcr, in his latest 
 work, leave no room for doubt on this point. It is plain that 
 each island has been peopled by one or more canoe-loads of emi- 
 grants, bringing their language with them. A still more striking 
 example is to be noted in Australia, where a vast region, larger than 
 Brazil, is found inhabited by hundreds, perliaps tiiousands, of petty 
 tribes, as completely' isolated as those of South America, but all 
 S})eaking languages of one stock. And if we inquire whj' many 
 different linguistic stocks have not arisen in that region, as in Cali- 
 fornia, Brazil, and Central Africa, the explanation presents itself at 
 once. Though the climate is as mild as in any of these regions, 
 the other conditions are such as would make it impossible for an 
 isolated group of young children to survive. The whole of A us- 
 
ADDRESS BY HORATIO HALE. 27 
 
 tralia is subject to severe droughts, and is so scantily provided 
 with edible products that the aborigines are often reduced to the 
 greatest straits. It is well known that an entire exploring party 
 of white men, well provided with tire-arnis, perished of famine in 
 attempting to traverse the interior. The suspicious and unsocial 
 character of the Australian natives, the smallness of their tribes, 
 their wide dispersion, and the little connnunication l)etween them, 
 are all well-known facts. If linguistic stocks could arise in the 
 waj' sui)posed by Ilcrr von Tschudi, there should be hundreds in 
 Australia ; but there is only one. 
 
 A curious ethnological fact, which tends strongly to confirm the 
 view of the origin of linguistic stocks now proposed, is the circum- 
 stance that, as a general thing, each linguistic family has its own 
 mythology'. This remarkable fact has been noticed, and well set 
 forth, l)y Major Powell ; and it had, I may add, already occurred to 
 myself in connection with the present inquiry, in which it finds its 
 sufficient explanation. Of course, when the childish pair or grouj), 
 in their isolated abode, framed their new language and transmitted 
 it to their descendants, they must necessaril}' at the same time have 
 framed a new religion for themselves and their posterity ; for the 
 religious instinct, like the language-making faculty, is a part of the 
 mental outfit of the human race. 
 
 But we are now brought face to face with another problem of 
 great didicnlty. The view which has just biou presented shows 
 that all the vast variety of languages on earth may have arisen 
 within a comparatively brief period ; and many facts seem to show 
 that the peopling of the globe by the present nations and tribes 
 of men is a quite recent event. The traditions of the natives of 
 America, North and South, have been gathered and studied of late 
 years, by scientific inquirers, with great care and valuable results. 
 All these traditions, Eskimo, Algonkin, Iroquois, Choctaw, Mexi- 
 can, Maya, Chibcha, reruviau, represent the peoi)le who preserved 
 them as new-comers in the regions in which they were found by the 
 whites. Ethnologists are aware that there is not a tradition, a mon- 
 ument, or a relic of any kind, on this continent, which requires us to 
 carry back the history of any of its aboiigiiuU tribes, of the existing 
 race, for a period of three thousand years. In the Pacific Islands 
 the recent investigations have had a still more striking and definite 
 result. We know, on sudiciently clear evidence, the times when 
 most of the groups, from New Zealand to the Sandwich Islands, 
 
28 SECTION U. 
 
 were first settled bj- their Polynesian occupants. None of the dates 
 go back beyond the Christian era. Some of them come down to 
 the last centiuy. In Australia the able missionary investigators 
 have ascertained that the natives had a distinct tradition of the 
 arrival of their ancestors, who entered by the northwest coast. It 
 is most unlikely that, among such a barbarous and wandering race, 
 a tradition of this nature should be more than tw( ' isand jcars 
 old. Probably it is much less ancient. "We k .\ positively that 
 the neighboring group of New Zealand was settled only about five 
 hundred years ago. Passing on to the old continent, we find that 
 the Japanese historical traditions go back, and that doubtfully-, only 
 to a period about twent3'-five hundred years ago ; those of China, 
 onl}' about four thousand years ; those of the Aryans, vagucl}-, to 
 about the same time ; the Assyrians, more surely, a little longer ; 
 and the Egyptians to the date fixed by Lepsius for Menes, not 
 quite four thousand years before Christ. No evidence of tradition, 
 or of an}- monument of social man, points to his existence on the 
 earth at a period exceeding seven thousand years before the present 
 time. Yet the investigations which have followed the discoveries 
 of Boucher de Perthes have satisfied the great majorit}- of scientific 
 men that human beings have been living on the globe for a term 
 wliich must be computed, not by thousands of jears, but by tens 
 and probabl}' hundreds of thousands. Writers of all creeds, and 
 of all opinions on other subjects, concur in the view that the exist- 
 ence of man goes back to a remote period, in comparison with 
 which the monuments of Egypt are but of yesterdaj- ; and jet 
 these monuments, as has been said, are the oldest constructions of 
 social man which are known to exist. How shall we explain this 
 surprising discrepancy? How shall we account for the fact that 
 man has existed for possibly two hundred thousand years, and has 
 onl}' begun to form societies and to build cities within less tlian 
 seven thousand years? In other words, how, as scientific men, 
 shall we bring the conclusions of geology and pala-ontology into 
 harmony with those of archaiology and history? 
 
 Fortnnatel}', the geologists and physiologists themselves, b}' their 
 latest discoveries, have furnished the means of clearing up the per- 
 plexities which their earlier researches had occasioned. We learn 
 from these discoveries that, while a being entitled to the name of 
 man has occupied some porti< is of the earth during a vast space 
 of time, in one and perhaps twu geological eras, the acquisition b}' 
 
ADDKESS BY HORATIO HALE. 29 
 
 this being of the power of speech is in all probabilit)' an event of 
 recent occurrence. The main facts on wliicli tliis opinion is based 
 must necessarily, in this summary, be A'cry briefly stated. For 
 other evidences, reference must be made to the sources where they 
 will be found fully set forth. 
 
 The question of the existence of man in the tertiary era has been 
 so thoroughly and ably discussed by my predecessor in this oflice, 
 Professor Morse, in his address at the Pinladelphia meeting in 
 1884, that I need not add a word on that subject. The fact that 
 man existed in the subsetiucnt period, which is known among Eng- 
 lish geologists as the pleistocene era and ii France more commonly 
 as the quaternary age, is questioned by no one. The men of that 
 era, the Palit'olithic men, as they are styled, arc distinguished by 
 the investigators, as is well known, into two distinct races, belonging 
 to widel}' dilferent epochs. These races arc variously designated by 
 the eminent authorities to whom I shall have occasion to refer, and 
 who, while they differ on some points, are on the the main question 
 of the existence and the distinction of these races fully In accord. 
 These authorities, it may here be stated, are, for France, Prof, 
 de Quatrefages and Prof. G. de Mortillet, and for England, Prof. 
 Boyd Dawkins. The views of M. de (Quatrefages are set forth 
 in his work entitled "Ilommes Fossiles et Ilommes Sauvages," 
 published in 1884, and in his well-known treatise on " The Human 
 Species," of which the eighth edition has appeared during the present 
 year. The work of M. de Mortillet, " Le Prchistorique," appeared 
 in 1883, and that of Prof. Boyd Dawkins, " Early Man in Britain," 
 was published in 1880. Those who had the pleasure of hearing 
 Professor Dawkins at the Montreal meeting of the British Associa- 
 tion, in 1884, are aware that his researches subsetiuent to the publi- 
 cation of that work had only conflrmed the views expressed in it. 
 I have also referred to the work of Dr. Paul Topinard, " L'Anthro- 
 pologic," of which the fourth edition appeared in 1884 ; to the work 
 of Prof. George II. von IMcyor, of Zurich, on tlie " Organs of 
 Speech" (1884), to the monograph of Dr. Robert Baume, of Ber- 
 lin, on the " Jaw-Fragments of La Naulette and the Schipka Cave " 
 (1884), and the work of Prof. Robert Ilartmann, of Berlin, on 
 "Anthropoid Apes," which has just appeared. 
 
 Professor Dawkins styles the earlier PaltBolithic race the " River- 
 drift men," and the later " the Cave-men." The River-drift men 
 were, in his view, hunters and savages of the lowest grade. In his 
 
30 SECTION n. 
 
 opinion, the mcc is now " as completely extinct as the woolly rlii- 
 noc'cros or tlie cave bear." We have, he considers, no chie to its 
 ctlniology ; and its relation to the race tliat succeeded it is doubt- 
 ful. The Cave-men were of a much higlier order, and were espe- 
 cially remarkable for their artistic talents, lie is inclined to believe 
 that their descendants survive in the Eskimo ; and whether we 
 accept this view or not, we learn from it that, in the opinion of this 
 eminent investigator, the Cave-men were men of the present race. 
 M. de (^uatrefages designates the two races from noted localities 
 where their osseous remains were found. The River-drift man is 
 witli liini the " man of Canstadt," from the place near which the 
 portion of a cranium belonging to this race was discovered ; and 
 the Cave-man is the "man of Cro-Magnon," a well-known locality 
 where several skeletons of this race were brought to liglit. M. de 
 Mortillet draws his designations from the places in which the im- 
 plements used by the different races are founc in their most t\-pical 
 form. The man of the earlier race is with him the " Chellean man," 
 from Chellcs, a place in the Department of 8eine-et-Marne ; while 
 the later is the ISIagdalenian man, from La Madeleine in the De- 
 partment of La Dordogne. lie makes two intermediate races, the 
 Mousterian and the Solutrean, which Professor Dawkins is inclined 
 to combine with the Magdalenian in a single race, corresponding 
 to his Cave-men. But in one respect M. de IMortillet makes an 
 even stronger distinction than that of Professor Dawkins between 
 the earlier and later races. Professor Dawkins expresses no opin- 
 ion on the question whether the River-drift men were or were not 
 endowed with tlic faculty of speech. Prof, de Mortillet is clear 
 that the}' were not. This view might fairl}* enough, as will be seen, 
 be based on the pithecoid character of their remains, and the low 
 grade of intellect shown by their imi)lemcnts ; but M. de Mortillet 
 finds a remarkable, and, in his opinion, a decisive evidence, in a 
 lower jaw belonging to this race, which was discovered in ISGfi in 
 the cave of La Naulette in Ik'lgium. It is only a fragment, but it 
 contains the central curve, or symphysis, forming the chin. In the 
 inner centre of the ordinary human jaw, there is at this curve a 
 small bony projection or excrescence, usually somewhat rough to the 
 touch, which is known to English and American aiuitomists as the 
 "mental tubercle," or "the genial tubercle." B}- French writers 
 it is termed the apophyHe (/mi, or genial apophysis, and by German 
 authors the spina mentalis. These epithets, "mental" and "ge- 
 
ADDRESS BY HORATIO HALE. 31 
 
 nial," it may be remarked, are not the common English adjectives 
 with which we arc familiar. "Mental" is here derived, not from 
 the Latin metis, the mind, bnt from nientum, the chin ; and, in the 
 same way, "genial" in this case is to be referred, not to the Greek 
 ytVos, family or kindred, but to yeVvs (or its derivative ycvcKis), 
 which means in that language the chin or under-jawbone. AVitli 
 this preface, I give in full the author's description of this remark- 
 able relic. The bone is small, and is supposed to have been that 
 of a female. But though small, it is a powerful jawbone. " In 
 fact," he continues, " the essential character of this fossil is its ro- 
 bustness, if 1 may so express njyself. The bone throughout is thick 
 and stock}', and thus approaches much nearer the jaws of anthi-o- 
 poids than those of man. The chin, in lieu of projecting forward 
 beyond the vertical line, inclines backward. It is something inter- 
 mediate between the man and the monkej'. The sockets of the 
 teeth show that the molars, in place of diminishing from the fu'st 
 to the last, were developed in the opposite wa}-. Finally, in the 
 middle of the inner curve of the jaw, in place of a little excrescence 
 called the ' genial tubercle,' there is a hollow, as with monkeys. 
 We may, then, sa}' that this human relic is the most pithecoid that 
 has yet been found." The inference to be derived from this forma- 
 tion is thus set forth b}' our author: "Speech, or articulate lan- 
 guage, is produced by movements of the tongue in certain ways. 
 These movements are effected mainly by the action of the muscle 
 inserted in the genial tubercle. The existence of this tubercle is 
 therefore essential to the possession of language. Animals which 
 have not the power of speech do not possess the genial tubercle. 
 If, then, this tubercle is lacking in the Naulette jawbone, it is be- 
 cause the man of Neanderthal, the ' Chellcan man,' was incapable 
 of articulate speech." 
 
 It must not be supposed, from this brief description, that M. de 
 Mortillet imagined that the genio-glossal muscle, the muscle vviiich 
 moves the tongue, and which in fact, as Prof, von IMeyer states, 
 contributes most to the form of that member, was lacking in the 
 Chellcan man, as it certainly is not lacking in the anthropoid apes. 
 It is not the muscle itself, but the mode of its insertion, which is 
 to be regarded. In the apes and other lower animals, where the 
 tongue is mainl}- used to aid in taking, masticating, and swallow- 
 ing food, much less freedom of motion is required for it than in man, 
 for whom its chief use is in the man}- delicate movements required 
 
32 SECTION U. 
 
 in fmming the elements of articulate utterance. It is for this greater 
 freedom that tiie insertion of the nnisclo — or ratlier of the muscles, 
 for there are two of these — in tlie genial tubercle or tubercles (for 
 there are also two of these) is required. Or, to speak still more 
 precisely, it should rather be said that it is by the incessant action 
 of the muscles pulling on tiie bone in tliese varied movements, that 
 the tubercles themselves must be deemed to have been developed. 
 Such is the explanation given by the able anatomists whom I have 
 consulted on this curious and important point. 
 
 It will seem that a single jawbone affords but scanty evidence on 
 which to base so momentous a conclusion. But conhrmation has 
 not been wanting. In August, 1880, Professor Maschka found in 
 the Schipka cave, in Northeastern Moravia, among bones of the 
 elephant, rhinoceros, and other animals of the pleistocene era, a 
 fragment of a human jawbone, bearing a remarkable resemblance 
 to that of the Naulette cave. Like the latter, it inclined backward 
 at the chin, being in this respect intermediate between the jaw of 
 the ape and that of the man ; and, as in the Naulette jaw, the genial 
 tubercle was wanting. The two jawbones have been submitted to 
 a most careful and thorough scrutinj' and anal3'sis by Dr. Robert 
 IJanme, a distinguished writer on dentistry-, who has brought out 
 some novel and important points. He shows that, fi'om the great 
 backward inclination of the chin, the jaw must, when the mouth was 
 open, have pressed upon the lar^-nx and closed it entirely-, utdess 
 the individual to whom the jaw belonged was of a much more 
 prognathous type — or, in other words, had the lower part of the 
 visage much more projecting — than is known in an}' now existing 
 race. His conclusion is, that there lived in the diluvial or quater- 
 nary age races of men who were markedl}' inferior to the lowest 
 races now existing. His view of the total disapi)earance of these 
 ancient races, therefore, harmonizes entirely with that of Professor 
 Dawkins. 
 
 This view is further confirmed liy an examination of all the 
 crania which arc believed, on good grounds, to belong to this 
 pristine people. These skulls are not numerous, but they are 
 sufHcient in number to characterize a race, and they are all of one 
 cast. The Canstadt skull, the Neanderthal skull, the fragment of 
 the Eguisheim skull and that of the skull found at Briix in Aus- 
 tria, as well as the skull lately discovered at Podhaba in Bohemia, 
 all belong to this earlier race, and all show the same peculiar char- 
 
ADDKESS BY HORATIO HALE. 33 
 
 aetoristics, — namely, a reniarkablo projection of the superciliary 
 rid<fes, or tlie prominences just above the eyes, and an extremely 
 low and receding forehead. What are ternu-d tlie frontal promi- 
 nences, tliat is, the projections of the upper part of the forehead, 
 arc entirely lacking. In both these respects the skulls of this 
 race unquestionably approximate to those of the higher order of 
 apes, the orang, the gorilla, and the chimpanzee. Speaking of the 
 Neanderthal skull, in his J>ectures on "Man's Place in Nature," 
 Professor Iluxley says: "Under whatever aspect we view this 
 cranium, whether we regard its vertical depression, the enor- 
 mous thickness of its superciliary ridges, its sloping occiput, 
 or its long and straight squamosal suture, we meet with ape-like 
 characters, stamping it as the most pithecoid of human crania yet 
 discovered." But he adds that the cubic capacity of the skull is 
 about seventy-five inches, which is the average capacity given b}' 
 Morton for Polynesian and Hottentot skulls, while the average 
 capacity of the gorilla skull is only about one third of that amount. 
 Thus it is clear that the Neanderthal skull is that of a man, and not 
 of an ape. But in these ancient crania the greater portion of the 
 capacitj' is in the posterior part of the skull. The narrowness and 
 depression of the forehead are remarkable, and exceed anything 
 known in the skulls of existing races. The height of the forehead 
 depends, of course, upon the development of the frontal lobe of the 
 brain. The frontal lobe is made up, as regards its height, of three 
 folds, or convolutions, termed by anatomists the first, second, and 
 third frontal convolutions. These convolutions lie one above the 
 other, the third being the lowest. This third convolution is some- 
 what thicker than the other two, and adds therefore, in general, 
 somewhat more to the height of the forehead than either of the 
 others. Its absence, or almost entire absence, from the brain, 
 would produce just such a depression, or extraordinary flatness, 
 as we find in the foreheads of these ancient skulls. Now it is a 
 remarkable fact, that, while the brain of a monkey is much smaller 
 than that of a man, its general outline is very similar to that of the 
 human brain. As Professor IIuxlc}- sajs, "the brain of a monkey 
 exhibits a sort of skeleton map of man's." Most of the convolu- 
 tions which are found in the one are present in the other. But 
 there is one remarkable exception. In the lower apes the third 
 frontal convolution is, according to Ilartmann, "entirely absent." 
 In the higher or anthropoid apes, it appears, but only in a rudi- 
 
 8 
 
34 SKCTION 11. 
 
 mcnl.iry form. " Its groat devclopincnt in nipn," writes r.cwfihrs. 
 iiuuin, " coiistituti's one ol" tlio most marivcd clistiiiclions botweon 
 the bruins of apes and those of men." Tiiis statement has been 
 questioned, as there is some dilferenee of opinion in regard to the 
 analysis of tin- (•(involutions ; but IWschoir, the higlu'st anllioritv, 
 coiilirms it; and Professor lIovehie(ine, in an article recently pub- 
 lished in the Heme IScloitifique on "The Evolution of Language," 
 repeats the statement in these signilieant words: "We mention 
 here, without dwelling upon it, that tiie faculty of language stands 
 in elose relation with a certain one of the frontal convolutions of 
 the brain, which tlui inferior monkeys do not possess, and which 
 is found in a rudimentary state in the anthropoids, but of which the 
 full acciuisition and most complete development have made man 
 what he is, the master of articulate speech." 
 
 This third frontal convolution is sometimes called " Broca's 
 convolution," from the fact that the distinguished French physiolo- 
 gist, Dr. Paul Broca, was the fust to localize the faculty of lan- 
 guage in it. This faculty, according to the description given by Dr. 
 Topinard in his " Anthropology," has its seat in " the posterior 
 portion of Broca's third frontal convolution." " Its surface has a 
 vertical height of about four centimeters " (or a little over an inch 
 and a half), "and an antero-posterior extension of from two to 
 three and a half centimeters," that is, from a little less than an 
 inch to nearly an inch and a half. Any lesion or disease of this 
 part of the brain, as is well known to medical men, produces ai)ha- 
 sia, or the loss of the power of speech. If this convolution were 
 absent from the human brain, or were only present in a rudimentary 
 form, as in the anthropoid apes, the man would be incapable of 
 speech, and the height of his forehead would be greatly diminished. 
 We should have, in fact, the precise difference which exists be- 
 tween the frontal portion of the Neanderthal or Podhaba skull, and 
 that of the average skull of the present race of men. 
 
 Some eminent writers, and one who may justl}- be styled pre- 
 eminent, INI. de Quatreftiges, have sought to show that in modern 
 times skulls similar to those of this ancient race have been met 
 with, and in some cases have belonged to persons of no mean 
 intellectual capacity. In his admirable work on " Fossil IMen and 
 Savage INIen," he gives pictures of the skulls of St. INIansuy, 
 Bishop of Toul, and of a Danish gentleman, named Kai-Likk(i, who 
 took some part in politics in the seventeenth century. These are 
 
ADDHESa HY HORATIO HALK. 35 
 
 compared with the Neanderthal skull. Tiie measurements arc not 
 given, bnt their outline, an<l especially tlu' IVont view of the Kai- 
 Likk('' eraiiiiitn, show ii distinct superiority in hcii^iit to the Nc- 
 andertlial skull ; and we nuist renieuihcr tiiut an ecclesiastic or a 
 politician may have but a scant devclopnii'iit of the faculty of 
 lau<;uage, and may yet gain distinction by other intellectual 
 qualities. 
 
 'J'iie man of the Uiver-drift, this Canstadt or Chcllean man, was 
 widely dispersed over a considerable part of the <j,lolie. His 
 presence is known by tlu; [)eculiar iin[)lements, or rafher imple- 
 ment, which he fashioned ; for in realit}', as Prof, de JNIortillet 
 shows, he had but one, thoun'ii this appears in varying shape. It 
 is called, among writers on this subject, by dillereut names. Some 
 speak of it as an axe, others simply as the "drift implement," 
 and M. de Mortillet descril)es it as -'a stone fist." It is, in fact, 
 simpl}' a stone chipped rudely into an ovate or almond-like shape, 
 such as would enable a man to grasj) it at one end. and strike with 
 it a more effective blow than he could strike with his naked list. 
 It could be used in this manner for striking, scraping, or pounding, 
 and, in a rough w.iy, for cutting. Then- is a singular rudi'uess in 
 its appearance, which marks at once the low intellectual grade of 
 those who fashioned and used it. Dr. Danii'l Wilson, in his work 
 on " I'rehistoric Man," has some striking remarks on this subject. 
 He observes (in his third chapter) that the investigator, in examiu- 
 ing the earliest pahvolithic implements, might imagine tliat he had 
 " traced his way back to the lirst crude elforts of human art, if not 
 to the evolutionary dawn of a semi-rational artificer. It is a signifi- 
 cant fact," he continues, "that no such clumsy unshai)eliness char- 
 acterizes the stone implements of the most degraded savage races." 
 And he adds, that this essential dilference of ty|)e " seems to i)oint 
 to some unex[)laiued dillerence " lietweeu the arlilicers of the two 
 periods. The explanation of this dillerence, which struck and 
 perplexed ihi.-^ most discerning observer, seems now to be found in 
 the fact that the earlier implements were the i)roduction of beings 
 whose minds were in the undeveloped state that must necessarily 
 characterize men who had not yet attained the i)ower of speech. 
 No one will question the justice of Professor Whitne^y's remark on 
 this point: "The speechless man is a being of undeveloped ca- 
 pacities, having within him the seeds of everything gn'at and good, 
 but seeds which only language can fertilize and bring to fruit ; ho 
 
36 SECTION n. 
 
 is potontially the lord of natmo, the iiniip;o of his Creator ; hut in 
 })ri'si'iit reality he is only a more ciimiiii^ brute uiiioiijf hnites." 
 " A man i)ori» (luiiih," ol)servi's I'rolessor lIiixK'V, *' notwitiistaiKiiiijjj 
 his great cerebral mass and his iiiiierituncc of strong intelleetiial 
 instincts, would be capable of few higlier intellectual manifestations 
 tlian an (jrang or a eiiimpanzee, if he were confined to the soeiet}' 
 of dumb associates." We need not tlieri'fore be surprisi'd to lind 
 that, wherever traces of the liiver-drift men have been discovered, 
 whetlicr in France, England, Greece, Asia Minor, India, Nortli 
 Africa, or America, tiiese traces, which consist merely of their 
 peculiar implements, are everywhere tiie same, showing no variety 
 in dilferent regions, and no apparent improvement tluring the lapse 
 of ages. The drill implements wiiich the fortunate and skilful 
 researches of Dr. Ablwtt have disclosed in New Jersey are in siiapo 
 exactly- like those which earlier investigators had unearthed from 
 the river-banks of France and England. 
 
 In view of these and other discoveries indicating the existence 
 of I'alicolithic man in America, and also in view of other facts re- 
 lating to the fauna of the two hemispheres, M. dc Mortillet is 
 deci<le(lly of opinion that during a considerable i)ortion of tiie early 
 quaternar}' era a connection existed between Europe and America 
 by way of the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Clretinland. It is well 
 known that such a connection existed during the miocenc era. It 
 was broken up in the pliocene age. Hut, as we know, a vast ele- 
 vation of land in Europe took place during the Glacial Epoch of 
 the quaternary or i)leistocene age. The facts adduced by Pro- 
 fessor Boyd Dawkins, in his " Early INIan in Britain," show that, 
 if this elevation attained the height of five hundred fathoms, 
 it must have restored the connection between the two continents. 
 He also shows that tiie elevation did actually reach, at least in the 
 region of the Mediterranean, a height of at least four hundred fath- 
 oms. An additional rise of a hundred fathoms in the north, which 
 may well be supposed, would have restored the " great tertiary 
 bridge," and enabled the River-drift man, with the various other 
 animals of his epoch which are found on both continents, to pass 
 from one to the other. 
 
 But when the next race, which is styled by M. de Quatrefages 
 the race of Cro-Magnon, appeared, the connection between the two 
 continents had long ceased to exist. The Great Ice Age had passed 
 away, and Europe was assuming its present condition. This race 
 
ADDIIKSS HY imnATIO II.M.K. 87 
 
 of Cro-^ragnon od'criMl, in soino rcspocts, the stroiifrost possible 
 contniHt U) till' prc'cudiiig raci? of CiiiiHtadt, or Hivcr-diill nicii. In 
 pinsiciil (U'vclopnicnt it was, to use the expression of this distin- 
 guislied writer, '• u inagnilieeiit race." The skull is large and well 
 developed, with a forehead at oiicc wide aiul lofty. The capacity 
 of one of these crania, according to Hroca's measurement, was not 
 less than l,r»l)() culiic centinu'ters, which exceeds hy 111) centime- 
 ters tile average size of I'arisian skulls of the present day. "Thus," 
 adds M. de <^>uatr<'fages, " in this savage, u contenip(jrary of tlu; 
 mammoth, vn- lind all the craiilological characters generally re- 
 garded as the signs of a great intellectual development." To this 
 may he added, that in the earliest lower jaw of this race which has 
 been discovered the genial tul)ercle is fully developed. The man of 
 this epoch was a social being, endowed with the facidty of speech. 
 His frontal lobe was large and high, and every convolution of the 
 brain must have existed in inuisual size. His intellectual pow- 
 ers corresponded with this di'velopmcnt. Of this fact we have 
 the most remarkable and indeed astonishing proof in his works of 
 art, — his pictures engraved on pieces of stone, ivory, and bone, 
 and his sculi)tures in bone and ivorv. Ilis rei)rescntations of the 
 animals of that period — the mannnoth, the reindeer, the elk, the 
 bear, the horse, the urus, the chamois, the whale, the pike, and 
 many others — are most admirable for the .artistic skill which thej' 
 display, and for their evident truth to nature. On this point all 
 ol)servers are agreed. " We recognize in them," writes ^I. de 
 IMortillct, " the works of a people eminently artistic. In these 
 primitive engravings and sculptures we remark so true a sense of 
 form and movement that it is almost always possible to determine 
 oxactl}' the animal represented, and to perceive the intention of the 
 artist. Some of the works are really small masterpieces." " So 
 natur.-vl are the attitudes, so exact the projjortions," writes IM. do 
 Quatrcfages, '■' that a decorative sculptor of our own days, in 
 treating the same subject, could hardl}' do better than to copy his 
 ancient predecessor." Dr. "Wilson speaks in the highest terms of 
 the " skill and intellectual vigor" manifested in these works of art, 
 and adds the noteworthy remark: ''In truth, it is far easier to 
 produce evidences of deterioration than of progress, in instituting 
 a comparison between the contemporaries of the mammoth and 
 later prehistoric races of Europe or savage nations of modern cen- 
 turies." In short, the evidence is clear and unquestionable, that, 
 
38 SECTION 11. 
 
 while the earliest race, the Itiver-drift men, were in form and 
 intellect the lowest nice of human beings that have ever existed, 
 their immediate successors, the Cave-men, or race of Cro-Magnon, 
 must he ranked, in shape and aspect, in cranial development, and 
 in intellectual endowments, among the very higiiest. 
 
 It is i)roper to observe, that M. de iMortillet and Professor 
 Dawkins make a distinction between the Cave-men and the " Neo- 
 lithic men," or men of the Polished Stone era, who immediately 
 followed them ; and they ascribe the remains of Cro-IMagnon to the 
 latter I'ace. M. de IMortilii-t admits, however, that the peoi)le of 
 Cro-Magnon Avere " evitlently descendants of the jMagdalenians," or 
 Cave-men, who wrought these works of art ; and Professor Dawkins 
 shows that the art-loving Cave-men and the less artistic Neolithic 
 poi)ulation were at one time contemporaries. Jt should be added, 
 that the fact that this artistic race lived at the same time with the 
 mannnoth, which is now extinct, affords no evidence of its great 
 antiquity. The mammoth was merely a variety of the elephant, 
 differing so little from the existing varieties that some naturalists 
 have refused to consider it a distinct species. It proliably became 
 extinct at a (piitc recent period. Another extinct mammal, tlic 
 great Irish elk, which was hunted both by the Cave-men and by 
 the Neolithic men, survived down to the Bronze age ; and the urns, 
 another animal of the quaternary era, only became extinct a few 
 centuries ago. The Cave-men of Professor Dawlvins, the Cro-JNIag- 
 non race of I'rof. de Quatrefages, were really a modern people, 
 — a people of our own age. And the question naturall}' arises, 
 When did this age, the age of speaking man, commence? The 
 answer will doubtless surprise many persons who have been accus- 
 tomed to consider the question without regard to the primary- and 
 all-imi)ortant distinction between the two races of men, — the 
 speechless and the speaking race. The former can, no doubt, be 
 traced back to an immense and undefined antiquity. The appear- 
 ance of the latter dates back probably less than ten thousand 
 years. 
 
 We might feel tolerably sure of this fact, as a conclusion of 
 sin]i)le reasoning. It is impossible to suppose that a people pos- 
 sessing the intellectual endowments of the Cro-Magnon race would 
 remain long in an uncivilized state, if tlR\y were once i)laced in a 
 countr}- where the climate and other surroundings were favorable 
 to the increase of population and to improvement in the arts of life. 
 
ADDKF.SS I5Y UOKATIO ll.VLK. 39 
 
 "Even ill the thon rigorous climate and other hard conditions of 
 Western Kiu-ope, they liacl advancetl, as Dr. I'aul Itroea declares, 
 *' to the very threshold of civilization." What must they have 
 become in Kgypt and in Southern Asia? In point of fact, during 
 a comi)aratively brief si)ace of time, ranging from five thousand to 
 seven thousand years ago, the men of these regions developed in 
 widely distant centres — in Egypt, in Mesopotamia, in I'lKcuicia, 
 in Northern India, and in China — a high and varied civilization 
 and culture, whose memorials, in their works of art and (heir litera- 
 ture, astonish us at this day, and in some respi'cts (k'(y imitation. 
 To what circumstance can we attribute this sutldcn anil wonderful 
 flowering of hiunan genius, after countless ages of torpidity, but to 
 the one all-sullicient cause, — the acquisition of the powei' of speech? 
 Many skilled obsi'rvers have sought to discover by various indica- 
 tions, such as the accinnulation of del)ris in caves, the layers of 
 cartli formed b}' streams, the growth of bogs, and other evidences, 
 the time which has ehipsi'd from tiie era of the Cave-men and the 
 Neolithic race to our own time. ' Professor Dawkins, in his account 
 (given in his work on " Cave-iruntiug") of (he exploration of the 
 Victoria Cave, at Settle in Yorkshire, makes an estimate, from the 
 uccunuihition of talus in the cave, of the time whicli has elapsed 
 since the cave was occupii'd by Neolithic man, anil fixes it at about 
 •1,800 or 0,000 years. JMany other investigators have reached sim- 
 ilar results. Their conclusions are well summed up by I'rof. Alex- 
 ander Wini'hell, in his work entitled '* Preadaini(es." "IMorlot," he 
 tells us, ''from the stu*!}' of tlu' layers constituting the ' cone of 
 the Tiniere,' — a deposit formed b^- ji torrent discharging itself into 
 the Lake of (ieneva, — concluded that the rolishcd Stone epoch 
 dates l)ack 1,700 to 7,000 years, (iillieron, from researches at the 
 Bridge of Miele, is led to lix the ci)ocli of Polished Stone at (1,700 
 years. Steenstrup, from investigations in the bogs of Denmark, is 
 led to regard 1,000 years as the mininnim for that epoch. De Ferry, 
 from a study of the river-drifts of the Sauiie, puis the Polislied 
 Stone epoch at ■\,'AS',\ years, anil the ei)och of the manimotli at r»,.s 1 1 
 to 7, 30;') years, — "fortunate," adds Professor Winchell, dryly, "if 
 the thousands are as exact as the units in thes(> figures." Areelin, 
 he further tells ns, from a se|)araio study of the drifts of the same 
 river, arrives at a very close agreement with De Ferry, i)utting 
 the epoch of Polished Stone from ,'5,000 to 1,000 years back, and 
 the blue claj-, containing the mammoth, from G,700 to 8,000 years. 
 
40 SECTION H. 
 
 Finallj', Le Hon, in view of all tlic results, fixes the age of Polished 
 Stone III from 1,000 to 0,000 years, the age of the reindeer (which 
 is in fact the age of Professor Dawkins's C'ave-men) at a point 
 beyond 7,000 years, and carries back the age of the niannnoth to 
 an indefinite period. All these estimates are in substantial accord ; 
 and none of them place the appearance of the Neolithic race, or 
 men of the I'olished Stone epoch, earlier than seven thousand years, 
 or that of the Cave-men, or men of the Reindeer period, more 
 than eight thousand years back. The terms in each case are as 
 likel}' to be less than tho<^e numbers as they are to be greater. 
 It is impossible not to yield assent to such a mass of concurrent 
 evidence. 
 
 If a pair of human beings, male and female, endowed with speech 
 and possessing the faculties of the earliest known people, the Cro- 
 JNIagnon race, appeared in some region of the old continent where 
 the climate and the natural productions were favorable to the exist- 
 ence of men, M'hat time would be required for their descendants to 
 become numeroufc, enough to found the early communities of Eg3'l)t 
 and Mesopotamia, and to spread into Europe and Eastern Asia? 
 The question is easil}' answered. Supposing the population to 
 double only once in fifty j-ears, which is a very low estimate, it 
 would amount in twelve hundred years to about fort}' millions, and 
 in fourteen hundred years would be over six hundred millions, or 
 nearl}' half the present population of the globe. That less than a 
 thousand j'ears will sufTice to create a high civilization, tlie exam- 
 ples on our own continent presented b}' the INIexicans, the Mayas, 
 the Muyscas, and the Peruvians amply prove. And that the same 
 space of time would be sufficient for the development of the plnsi- 
 cal peculiarities which characterize the various races of men, by 
 climatic and other influences, is made clear by the evidence accumu- 
 lateil b}' Prichard, De C^uatrefages, Huxley, and other careful and 
 trustwortii}- investigators. Nor need the change of climate which 
 was undoubtedly in progress during the earlier part of the exist- 
 ence of the Cro-lMagnon race, and which is believed to have con- 
 tributed to the extinction of the mannnoth and otlier animals of 
 that era, have occupied a longer period. In fact, the observations 
 and estimates just quoted from Professor Winchell seem to show 
 clearh' that it did not. If the diversity of languages has had its 
 origin in the cause suggested in this essay, and ma}' therefore have 
 arisen in any period, however brief, during which the peopling of 
 
ADDKESS BY IIOUATIO HALE. 41 
 
 the world has proceeded, there would seem to be no grounds what- 
 ever for referring the first appearance of speaking man to a greater 
 antiquity than eiglit, or at the most ten, thousand years. 
 
 How, and where, did this momentous apparition occur? These 
 arc questions which naturall}- arise, and our inquiry would not be 
 complete without a brief consideration of them. That the " speak- 
 ing man" of our era is a descendant of the ''speechless man" of 
 the River-drift period cannot be doubted. We have not to deal 
 with the origin of a new species, but simply witli tliat of a variety. 
 There can be no question that this variety arose in the usual way, 
 by what is termed the process of heterogencsis, or, in other words, 
 the law by which the oflspring differs from the parents. As every 
 child has two parents, it cannot resemble both, and, in point 
 of fact, it never exactly resembles either of them. Ordinarily, this 
 unlikeness is restricted within certain defined and rather narrow 
 limits ; but occasionally, as when dwarfs or giants are born to 
 parents of ordinary stature, it is vcr}- great. Among the lower 
 animals, when such offspring propagate their like, a new variety 
 or breed arises, which sometimes differs very widely from the origi- 
 nal stock, — as occurred, for example, in the Ancon or otter breed 
 of sheep, which thus originated in New England, and in the horn- 
 less cattle which have overspread several provinces of Paraguay. 
 That in some family of the primitive speechless race two or more 
 children should have been born with the faculty and organs of 
 speech is in itself a fact not specially remarkable. JMuch greater dif- 
 ferences between parents and offspring frequently appear. Among 
 these, for example, is one so common as to have received in physi- 
 ology the scientific name of polydactylism, — a term api)lied to the 
 case of children born with more than the normal number of fingers. 
 M. de (^uatrefages mentions that in the family of Zerah Colburn, 
 the celebrated calculator, four generations possessed this peculiarity, 
 which commenced with Zerali's grandfather. In the fourth genera- 
 tion four children out of eight still had the supernumerary fingers, 
 although in eacli generation the many-fingered parent had married 
 a person having normal hands. Plainly, he adds, if this C'olbnrn 
 family had been dealt 'ith like the Ancon breed of sheep, a six- 
 fingered variety of tlie human race would have been formed ; and 
 this, it may be added, would have been a far greater variation than 
 was the production of a speaking race descending from a speech- 
 less pair. The appearance of a sixth finger requires new bones, 
 
42 SECTION n. 
 
 muscles, and tendons, with additional nerves leading ultimately to 
 the hrain. There is good reason to l)elieve that the first endow- 
 ment of speech demanded far less change than this. All the an- 
 thropoid apes can utter cries of some sort, and some of them can 
 make a variety of sounds. Professor Ilartinann expressly informs 
 us that the larynx in these animals resembles in the main that 
 of man. "We cannot doubt that our primitive ancestor, the ILnno 
 alalus^ in spite of his name, could utter man}' sounds, and pos- 
 sessed the usual vocal organs. Professor Huxley has dwelt with 
 nuR-h force on the slight anatomical difference which might exist 
 between the speechless and the speaking man. A change of the 
 minutest kind, he tells us, in the structure of one of the nerves 
 which comnnmicate Avith the vocal chords, or in the structure of 
 the part in which it originates, or in the supply of blood to that 
 part, or in one of the muscles to which it is distributed, might 
 render all of us dumb. And he adds (in words similar to those 
 already quoted) : "A race of dumb men, deprived of all communi- 
 cation with those who could speak, would be little indeed removed 
 from the brutes. The moral and intelle(;tual difference between 
 them iind ourselves would be practically infinite, though the natu- 
 ralist should not be aljle to find a single shadow even of specific 
 structural difference." 
 
 In the actual case, so far as can bo judged from the osteology, 
 the changes which took place when the speaking children were born 
 to the speechless pair were in the greater development of the cere- 
 bral convolution in which tlie faculty of language resides, in the new 
 direction given to the under part of the lower jaw, which now pro- 
 jected forward instead of receding, and in the increased volume and 
 strength of the genio-glossal muscles, which by their acfion devel- 
 oped the genial tubercle, and gave at once greater si/e and more 
 freedom of movement to the tongue. These changes, though so 
 important in their results, Averc really slight comi)ared with the 
 changes in a case of polydactylism. Tlic chief alteration was, of 
 course, that which took place in the brain. It was simiily fhe on- 
 laigcmcnt of a fold of that organ ; but its effect was prodigious, and 
 has transformed the globe. This enlarged fold was the seal, not 
 merely of the faculty of language, but of rmmx other facullii's. all of 
 which showed at once the effect of their newly ac(iuireil power. 
 
 And here it is proper to remark on the mistake, or the confusion 
 of processes, which has led some esteemed writers to sujipose that 
 
ADDKLSS Ijy HORATIO HALE. 43 
 
 the first spoaking men, originating from parents of weak mental 
 eapaeity, must have i)artaken oftlial intelkictual fcjebleness. EUibo- 
 rate works have been "written on tliis siil)jcet, in which the wliole 
 argument has been based on tlie supposition that tlie oarUest of 
 speaking men were inferior to their successors, not merel}- in 
 accunmhited knowledge, — which was a matter of course, — but 
 in mental power, whicii is a very different affair. The lowest 
 tribes ol' our time — the Australians, Hottentots, Fuegians, and 
 other savages — have l)een assumed to be lair representatives of 
 what our earliest ancestors must have been when the}' were lirst 
 endowed with the facult}- of speech. This supposition is contrary 
 botii to reason and to the known facts. Jt confuses two processes, 
 which are totally unlike in their working and in their results. The 
 changes caused by climate and the other external influences which 
 are commonly known as the " environment " arc gradual. The 
 changes which arise from hcterogenesis are sudden, and are at once 
 comi)lete. In the cases of polydactylism, we do not lind that a 
 mere germ or stump of a finger first api)ears, and graduall}' becomes 
 longer and stronger in succeeding generations. The perfect finger 
 ai)i)ears at once. So in the lower animals : the Ancon or otter 
 breed is known to have sprung from a single shee[), born with ab- 
 normally short legs, which became no shorter in its descendants. 
 The hornless cattle of Paraguay are known to be all descended from 
 a single animal, which was born without horns. There is no rea- 
 son for sui)posing that the earlie.'':.t speaking men may not have 
 been endor,.'d with the higliest intellectual faculties of the human 
 race. There is ever}' reason to believe that they were so endowed. 
 The race of Cro-Magnon, the earliest known race of social men, 
 though barbarians, were, in point of cerebral development and of 
 artistic powers, not only superior to any barbarians of the present 
 da}', but certainly equal, if not superior, to any civilized race that 
 has ever existed. The otlier earliest communities known to us, 
 those of Egypt and of Southwestern Asia, have surpassed in their 
 architectui'c and their inventions all succeeding races. Their tem- 
 ples and other structures are the desi)air of our arcliitects. All the 
 first elements of knowledge and of progress have come from them. 
 The}' invented pottery and glass, the plough and the loom. They 
 invented the alphabet, and with it a varied and voluminous litera- 
 ture. They invented astronomy, geometry, and history. They 
 smelted copper and iron. They tamed almost all the most useful 
 
44 SECTiox n. 
 
 animals. The}' first cultivated almost all the most valuable oscu- 
 Icuts. They and their earliest oll'shoots devised all the forms of 
 settled government, — monarch}' in Assyria and Kg^'pt, theocracy 
 in India, aristocracy in l^enicia, and democracy in Arabia. They 
 invented the great Egyptian, Assyrian, and Aryan religions, and 
 endowed their gods witli the qualities of knowledge, power, and jus- 
 tice, which they most admired in their rulers. In Egyi)t they in- 
 stituted the judgment after death, and in Assyria they established 
 the Sabbath. Their period was that which has been well styled by 
 Mr. Gladstone the "youth of the world," — Juvoitus niinidi, — 
 when the human race, on its thinly i)eopled planet, felt all its ener- 
 gies called forth to meet the wants and solve the problems of its 
 new existence. 
 
 This conclusion as to the high intellectual grade of the earliest 
 speaking man is very important in its bearing on our views respect- 
 ing the so-called inferior races. It is clear that they represent, not 
 this primitive man, but simply a degeneration caused by unfavorable 
 inlluences. If this degeneration has taken place, as there seems 
 every reason for believing, within a very brief period, — five or six 
 thousand years at furthest, and most of it prol)ably within a few 
 centuries after their separation from the original stock, — there 
 seems good reason for believing that an miprovement in their sur- 
 roundings will be followed b}- a gradual elevation, and a return to 
 the high primitive t3pc. 
 
 The question of the I'cgion in which speaking man first appeared 
 is one on which there is room for a wide difference of opinion. It 
 is a question about which no one will venture to dogmatize. The 
 natural supposition, of course, would be that this first appearance 
 took place somewhere near the centres of the earliest civilization. 
 These centres were in Egypt and Assyria. Between those coun- 
 tries lies Arabia, in which, amidst the sand}' desert that protects 
 the land from invasion, there are many oases, large and small, 
 blessed Avith a most genial climate and a fruitful soil. In these 
 oases, w hich have never known the swa}' of a foreign conqueror, 
 the native traditions go back to a dim antiquity, in which no evi- 
 dence of early barbarism is discerned. From that primitive centre, 
 if such it was, the increasing population would speedily overflow 
 into the plains of IMesopotamia and the fertile vallc}' of the Nile ; 
 and there, or in their near vicinity, nearly all the animals which 
 were first tamed, and nearly all the plants which were first culti- 
 
ADDIIKSS BY UOUATIO HALE. 45 
 
 vfitcd, would be found. Wc need not be surprised, therefore, to 
 find tliat tbo great majorit}' of investigators liavo looked to South- 
 western Asia for the primitive seat of tlic human race. The most 
 distinct tradition that has come down to us of the earliest belief re- 
 specting the creation of man — the tradition wliich is preserved in 
 the Hebrew narrative — places it in an oasis on the Arabian bor- 
 der, and dates it apparently at about the time when, as all the evi- 
 dence seems to show, man endowed with speech first api)eared. 
 
 One otlier question, not certainly of the first importance, but 
 still of curious and genuine interest, remains to be considered. If 
 the first language spoken by man was invented less than ten thou- 
 sand years ago, it may be deemed next to a certainty that this lan- 
 guage has survived to our time, — not, of course, in its exact original 
 form, but in some derived idiom. It raay be taken for granted tiiat 
 tlie population speaking this language would be widely- difl'used, and 
 would have man}' descendants, now speaking affiliated languages of 
 the original stock. Tliere are three families of languages clustered 
 about the supposed centre of this priscan population, the Hamito- 
 Semitic, the Arj'an, and the Ural-Altaic. The Hamito-Semitic 
 stock has for its earliest representatives the Arabic, the Assyrian, 
 the Hebrew, and the Egyptian. The Aryan family' numbers among 
 its most ancient members the Sanscrit, the Zend, and the Greek. 
 The Ural-Altaic stock, to which the Turkisli, the Finnish, and the 
 Hungarian languages belong, finds its chief, but sufficient, claim to 
 high anticjuity in the Accadian, whose discovery- and decipherment, 
 from the hieroglyi)hics of the Assyrian inscriptions, have furnished 
 one of the most notable triumphs of modern scholarship. Each of 
 these three great families of speech is very widely diffused, and each 
 of them n)iglit advance strong claims to this curious genealogical 
 distinction of being the direct representative of the earliest tongue. 
 The question is one whoso determination by strictl}' scientific 
 methods does not seem by any means beyond reasonable hojie. If 
 science can weigh the planets, can define the chemical components 
 of the fixed stars, and describe the shape of continents that ex- 
 isted millions of years ago, it may surel}' bo expected to find evi- 
 dence for determining the particular linguistic stock to which the 
 earliest spoken language belonged. Such evidence as we have at 
 present certainly seems to favor the Hamito-Semitic famil}'. This 
 family possesses the most ancient literature, and, if the difference 
 between the Ilamitic and Semitic gro'ips is considered, seems to 
 
46 SECTION 11. 
 
 have varied, in the long lapse of ages, most widcl}'. Lopsius and 
 V. Miillor have traced its inlkicnce far into tlie interior of Africa; 
 and Professor Gerland, going fnrtlier still, nnites the whole jxipn- 
 lation of that vast peninsnla witli the Semitic group in one great 
 Arabic-African race. There is a certain evidence — not perhaps 
 decisive, but wortliy of consideration — which seems to connect 
 the Cro-Magnon race M'ith tlie llamitic branch of this family. The 
 extinct population of tlie Canary Islands, the (Jnanches, are known 
 to have belonged to this llamitic branch, and their crania, as Prof, 
 de Qnatrefages shows, bear a striking resemblance to those of the 
 men of the Cro-iNIagnon era. This cautious investigator does not 
 hesitate to pronounce the Guanehcs to be evidently the descendants 
 of that ancient race. lie declares that " the resemblance of cranial 
 forms sometimes amounts to identity," and he adds the confirma- 
 tory fact, that a late observer, M. "N'erneau, has found among the 
 present islanders — who are in part descended from the (luanches 
 — implements precisely like those which were used in France by 
 the Cro-^Iagnon liunters. 
 
 Tlie conclusions to which this inquiry, guided bj- the most recent 
 discoveries of science, has directed us, may be briefly summed up. 
 We find that llie ideas of the anti(]iiity of man wliicli have pre- 
 vailed of late 3-cars, and more especiallj' since Lyell published his 
 notable work on the subject, must be considerabh' modified. iS'o 
 doubt, if we are willing to give the name of man to a half-brutish 
 being, incapable of speech, wliose only human accomplishments M'ere 
 those of using fire and of making a single clumsy stone implement, 
 we must allow to this lieing an existence of vast and as j-et un- 
 defined duration, shared with the mammoth, the woolly- rhinoceros, 
 and other extinct animals. But if, with many writers, we term the 
 beings of this race the [precursors of man, and restrict the name of 
 men to the members of the speaking race that followed them, then 
 the fli'st appearance of man, properly so styled, must be dated at 
 about the time to which it was ascribed before the discoveries of 
 Boucher de Perthes had startled the civilized world, — that is, some- 
 where between six thousand and ten thousand years ago. And this 
 man who thus appeared was not a being of feeble powers, a dull- 
 witted savage, on the mental level of the degenerate Australian or 
 Hottentot of our daj-. He possessed and manifested, from the 
 first, intellectual faculties of the highest order, such as none of his 
 descendants have surpassed. His speech, we maj' be sure, was 
 
ADDKKSS BY HOKATIO HALE. 47 
 
 not !i im>rc mumble of disjointod souiuls, framed of interjections 
 tmd of imitatiuus of the cries of beasts and birds. It was, like 
 every language now spoken anywliere on earth bj- anj* tribe, how- 
 ever rude or savage, a full, expressive, well-organized speech, 
 cou'plete in all its parts. The first men spoke, because they pos- 
 sessed, along with the vocal organs, the cerebral faculty of speech. 
 As Professor jNIax Miiller has well said, "that faculty was an 
 instinct of the mind, as irresistible as any other instinct." Jt was 
 as inipossii)le for the first child endowed with this facult}' not to 
 speak, in the presence of a com[)anion similarly endowed, as it 
 would be for a nightingale or a thrush not to carol to its mate. 
 The same faculty creates the same necessity in our days ; and its 
 exercise b}' young children, when accidentally isolated from tlie 
 teachings and iuHuence of grown companions, will readily account 
 for the existence of all the diversities of speech on our glube. 
 
 If the views now i)resented shall be confirmed Ity further in- 
 vestigations, the}- will serve to clear up uncertainties which have 
 pcri)lexed the minds of students of linguistic science and of arclwe- 
 ology, and have seriously' impeded the progress of all the anthro- 
 pological sciences. Tiie views, with the evidence which seems to 
 sustain tliem, arc therefore resix'ctfully submitted to the candid 
 consideration of the meml)ers of our Section, and through them to 
 the students of those sciences in other countries, in the hope of 
 inducing further incjuiry which may lead to decisive and satisfac- 
 tory conclusions on these important questions.