ABSTRACT
Experimental tests are not necessary in order to induce the chimpanzee to handle the objects of his immediate surroundings in a variety of ways. His large, powerful and flexible hands are natural links between himself and the world of things, and he attains the necessary amount of muscular force and co-ordination at an earlier age than the human child. Though the chimpanzees under our observation developed very considerable procedures with these means, one can hardly say that these accomplishments were largely due to their captive state. The everyday handling and treatment of objects on the part of the chimpanzee comes almost entirely under the rubric "play". Dogs as a species are on a different enough level from chimpanzees, but as the chimpanzee has the wide range of individual variation corresponding to his high stage in evolution, nature has given to some individuals of this species an occasional expression of incredible and absurd stupidity.
