Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 123, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1903 — Neatness of Dumb Brutes. [ARTICLE]

Neatness of Dumb Brutes.

Henri Choupin, a French naturalist, draws attention to the fact that animals as a rale are wonderfully neat and far excel human beings In this respect. It has taken men, he says, several centuries to learn the virtues of,neatness and cleanllnps, whereas animals have apparently always possessed them. At rate, they were certainly m first to use soap, sponges and toothbrushes.' " “Ffoin time immemorial,” he continues, “animals have cleansed themselves, using their tongues as brusfbes, their saliva as soap, their tails as towels and dusters and their claws as combs. Moreover, many of them take a cold bath whenever they have ah opportunity; indoed, the apes go as far as to boycott those among them who do not take proper cave of their bodies. Another singular fact about the apes is that those among them wlu have har d some beards never plunge them recklessly into a rivc-r or pond, but delicately sprinkle them with water. Buffon had a chimpanzee who always rinsed his mouth before drinking, and I have heard of a female orang-outang who was an adept in the use of a toothpick. A fly after it is decapitated generally spends some seconds in brushing its neck and shoulders with Its legs, but even the most zealous advocate of cleanliness will hardly claim that Its object in doing so is that it may present a suitable post-mortem appearance.”