262 COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BRAIN 



opposed to the elementary facts of associative memory 

 or consciousness. 



2. Experiments on the brain indicate that while 

 there exists to a certain extent an anatomical localisa- 

 tion in the cortex, the assumption of a psychical 

 localisation is contradicted by the facts. The occipi- 

 tal region of the cerebral hemispheres is said to be 

 the seat of visual processes, the temporal lobes the 

 seat of auditory processes. If the occipital regions 

 are removed, only the visual processes are said to 

 cease, while if the temporal regions are removed, only 

 the auditory processes are said to disappear. We 

 know that persons who were born blind and deaf have 

 shown a normal or even a superior intellect (Laura 

 Bridgman). If the theory of psychic localisation 

 were correct, we should expect that an animal from 

 whose hemispheres the occipital and temporal regions 

 are removed would become blind and deaf, but would 

 remain normal in other directions. But Goltz has 

 shown that such an animal (dog) becomes hopelessly 

 idiotic (2, V.). The processes of association even of the 

 other senses are no longer normal. This agrees with 

 the idea that in processes of association the cerebral 

 hemispheres act as a whole, and not as a mosaic of a 

 number of independent parts. 



Goltz has proved that if we remove one whole 

 hemisphere in a dog the personality of the animal or, 

 in other words, the sum-total of its associations remains 

 the same. The dog recognises its friends and all the 

 other objects it has ever known, and it reacts in such 



