3 i6 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



the point of view of their evolution, show that they are stamped 

 with the print of unconscious labour that has been fashioning 

 them in the long 'procession of ages. Reflection upon new 

 words coined in our own time proves that the evolution of 

 language exhibits an abstract and brief chronicle of the history 

 and progress of the race, and it constitutes the Social Mind, 

 embodying the record of past experience which each later 

 individual of the race can utilise through his senses and his 

 brain. We know that the offspring from a savage tribe in 

 Africa, brought up among cultured people, can, by imitation, 

 through his senses utilise this social heritage; he fails, however, 

 individually and collectively, to initiate new ideas and to add 

 to the social inheritance of mankind. The millions of negroes 

 in America have added little or nothing to the sum of human 

 knowledge since their emancipation from slavery. 



The Brain a Transformer and Accumulator of Neural Energy 

 from Cosmic Energy. — You may ask : Will not the brain be 

 affected in its growth by deprivation of the stimulus of the social 

 heritage ? There are certain facts which point to its not being 

 affected in its growth and structural development. First of all 

 we must look upon the whole nervous system, and particularly 

 the brain which forms the greater part of its bulk, as possessing 

 the function of transforming cosmic energy into neural energy 

 and storing it up as nerve potential. This function would not 

 suffer in the least by the deprivation of the social heritage built 

 up by language. Moreover, the fact that the wild man found in 

 the forest in Germany was able to learn German shows that the 

 latent capacity was there in spite of the fact that he had never 

 since childhood heard spoken language. When I speak of the 

 transformation of cosmic into neural energy I mean that a nerve 

 current is a specific molecular vibration travelling along the 

 nerve at the rate of about 30 yards a second ; it is not therefore 

 an electrical current although it produces an electrical disturbance 

 in the tissue involved. The effect on the mind produced by an 

 external stimulus we say is due to the nature of the stimulus ; 

 that is true, but it is also due to the specific function of the 

 neural systems of peripheral receptor, transmitter, and central 

 perceptor in the brain. For the same stimulus will give rise to 

 different sensations according to the different special sense 

 organs stimulated. Thus if an interrupted electrical current be 

 applied to the tongue so as to stimulate the gustatory nerve, 



