Rearing Ape as Child.

Star (Christchurch), Volume XLIV, Issue 298, 16 December 1931, Page 6

Rearing Ape as Child.

BABY APE is to be brought up like a child of a well-to-do family. He will have a nurse and a governess. He will be wheeled around in a fashionable perambulator. As he ages he will play with at least one human child of his own age. Correct and snappy American speech will be taught him. This experiment of “ humanising the ape” is about to be undertaken by Professor W. N. Kellogg, experimental psychologist of the University of Indiana. Dr Kellogg has strong hopes that he will succeed. Unless the apes lack the motor apparatus of speech, they should be able to talk like human beings, he thinks. What has so far caused failure to educate apes is that scientists have not treated them fairly, Dr Kellogg argues. The first condition of a successful test is that the ape should be treated just as a human baby is treated from the hour of its birth. Following his theory, Dr Kellogg plans to adopt a newborn ape and bring it up. Thus the mistake would be avoided of establishing an animal environment and suggestion around the growing ape as is done in most of the animal laboratories and zoos.