THE SECRET OF KEEPING YOUNG.

Otago Witness, Issue 3899, 4 December 1928, Page 72

THE SECRET OF KEEPING YOUNG.

By Professor J. Arthur Thomson. Summer x is the season of maximum animal industry, as the busy bees proclaim. Some are accumulating capital, of which honey is the most beautiful example; others are building barns, like the great ant-hills, 3ft high, in the pine-woods; others are very busy collecting food, like the screaming swifts hawking insects in mid-air. There are endless forms of animal industry to be seen in the summer months. * * '*• But, in early summer especially, we are familiar with another sight—the play of animals, which differs entirely from work in having no direct utility. Play is the expression of an inborn predisposition to certain forms of tentative activity which are not in themselves of immediate use. Yet they bear some relation to the subsequent lifework, and are of value in exercising the creature’s efficiencies. Play is illustrated by kittens with their ball, puppies and their sham-hunt, lambs and their races, monkeys and their “ follow-my-leader.” It is well known in calves, kids, foals, foxes, otters, bears, and monkeys. There are often sham fights among birds which seem to be entirely playful, besides exhibitions of flying powers that have no direct usefulness. Among reptiles, amphibians, and fishes there are but few convincing instances of play, and the same must be said of backboneless animals. The fact is that only a few animals play, and it follows that there must be some particular advantage in the interpolation of a playing period in the youthful life. Many young carnivores, ungulates, and monkeys indulge in play, but this cannot be said to be a general feature in the life-history of mammals. What, then, is the biological significance of play? - It was long ago suggested by the poet Schiller that animal play is an expression of overflowing energy. It is the by-play of exuberant vigour and animal spirits. There is a grain of truth in this simple theory, but it is far too simple. "

Thus there are many young animals of abundant vigour that never play; and even a tirad animal may turn in a moment from fatigue to play, as children often do. Moreover, half of the problem is that different types of mammal play in different ways. The forms of play are characteristic or specific. Schiller’s theory of play was re-ex-pressed by Herbert Spencer, who improve 1 on it by suggesting that imitation accounts for tlie particular form that the playing takes. The conditio’- of play is superfluous energy, but imitation defines the channel of expression. Young animals mimic in play what they see their seniors doing in earnest. Here again there is some truth, as is evident from the imitativeness of some forms of playing in children. But it has been shown experimentally that Spencer’s theory cannot be the whole truth. An isolated young ani-.--.al will play, and will play true to type, provided that some appropriate liberating stimulus, apart from imitation, is supplied at an appropriate time.

A third contribution to the biology of play is furnished by the close correlation between pleasant emotion and motion. Pleasant feelings are echoed in the internal movements of our heart, as Wordsworth knew so well; and other parts of.the body, such as the larynx and the lung-., are often affected. But this may extend to larger movements of the body j a hole. The 'hild dances with The animal gambols exuberantly. This movement-play may ,c a i seful safety-valve; but it is also to be regal ded as a natural express.on, varying with the type, of overflowing joie de vivre.

Io Karl Groos we owe the valuable suggestion that play is especially important as an irresponsible apprenticeship to the subsequent business of life. It is a rehearsal without responsibilities, a> preliminary canter before the real race begins, a sham-fight before the real battle. In- short, play is the young form of work, and this is the reason for its specificity. The young carnivore has its. sham hunt and the young hoofed animal its amateurish race.

The interpolation of a play-period in youth is an additional advantage which some plastic and well-endowed animals have secured for themselves. Its chief advantage is that it affords opportunities for educating powers that are essential in after-life. And these opportunities, which are so familiar in kittens and puppies, in lambs and calves, do not involve the serious consequences that are inevitable when the struggle for existence becomes keen. Animals play under tlie shelter of their parents.

There is another aspect of the playperiod: that it gives the players a chance to try new departures in habit. It gives idiosyncrasies an opportunity; it allows elbow room for variations, before the criticisms and responsibilities of grownup life become serious. Some of the most playsome of mammals, such as the otter, live a very varied adult life demanding plasticity and resourcefulness. This is the great advantage that play has in contrast to human games., which rarely admit of much expression of individuality. In fact, the common phrase “ playing the game ” lays emphasis on self-subordination. But there is no reason why man should not have plav as well r.s games. Another interesting hint that man may get from animals is-that play is not necessarily restricted to youth. The otter, like the domestic dog, sometimes remains playful all its life; and we have seen a cat playing on the quiet long after it had reached years of discretion. Even the staid penguins continue to play long after they are full grown. To retain some playfulness (along artistic lines) may be part of the secret of remaining young.

When we speak of animal play we think especially of the gambol and the race, the sham hunt and the sham fight, and there is also a playful experimenting that is highly developed in some monkeys and apes. For clearness’ sake it seems desirable to keep by themselves those artistic activities in which many animals indulge in, their courting davs, for lightsome as these often are they are too purposive to be in the strict sense playsome. But it is very difficult to draw a defining line.—John o’ London’s Weekly.