58 THE DESCENT OF MAN. Part I. 



ing. 37 Nevertheless a long succession of vivid and con- 

 nected ideas, may pass through the mind without the 

 aid of any form of language, as we may infer from the 

 prolonged dreams of dogs. We have, also, seen that 

 retriever-dogs are able to reason to a certain extent ; 

 and this they manifestly do without the aid of language. 

 The intimate connection between the brain, as it is 

 now developed in us, and the faculty of speech, is well 

 shewn by those curious cases of brain-disease, in which 

 speech is specially affected, as when the power to re- 

 member substantives is lost, whilst other words can be 

 correctly used. 38 There is no more improbability in 

 the effects of the continued use of the vocal and mental 

 organs being inherited, than in the case of hand- 

 writing, which depends partly on the structure of the 

 hand and partly on the disposition of the mind ; and 

 hand-writing is certainly inherited. 39 



Why the organs now used for speech should have 

 been originally perfected for this purpose, rather than 

 any other organs, it is not difficult to see. Ants have 

 considerable powers of intercommunication by means 

 of their antennae, as shewn by Huber, who devotes a 

 whole chapter to their language. We might have used 

 our fingers as efficient instruments, for a person w T ith 

 practice can report to a deaf man every word of a speech 

 rapidly delivered at a public meeting ; but the loss of 

 our hands, whilst thus employed, would have been 

 a serious inconvenience. As all the higher mammals 

 possess vocal organs constructed on the same general 



37 See remarks on this head hy Dr. Maudsley, 'The Physiology 

 and Pathology of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. 199. 



38 Many curious cases have been recorded. See, for instance, 

 ' Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers/ by Dr. Aberciombie, 

 1838, p. 150. 



39 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. 

 ii. p. 6. 



