CHIMPANZEE'S FINGER-PRINTS

Evening Star, Issue 22895, 1 March 1938, Page 11

CHIMPANZEE'S FINGER-PRINTS

Dr Wolff, the psychologist, has .for some time past been making collection! of simian finger-prints and studying the hands of the primates generally, with a view to their significances and indices to character and mental development. _, At a relatively early stage in this study it became apparent that the frivolous and unstable nature of the smaller monkeys afforded little hopes of cooperation between them and the investigator. The manlike apes, and particularly the chimpanzee, however, showed themselves idea 1 subjects for study. In the case of the chimpanzee it has been known for some time that this ape is, at two years old. more intelligent than a human child of the same age, and that it maintains the Jevel of * human juvenile until it approaches puberty. But where “ coming of age ” marks the commencement of a human career, in the chimpanzee it is the first step downhill, and adult chimps, as many Zoo visitors will have observed, often, present many of the painful features common to the insane. These developments, Dr Wolff has found, are paralleled in the hand, all healthy chimpanzee children bearing the markings characteristic of a normal human infant, whilst the hand of th« adult ape bears a strong analogy to many hands found within the walls of an asvluni.