THE EVOLUTION OF THE BRAIN 



one who is capable of comparing his past and future actions 

 or motives, and of approving or disapproving of them. We 

 have no reason to suppose that any of the lower animals have 

 tliis capacity; therefore, when a Newfoundland dog drags a 

 child out of the water or a monkey faces danger to rescue its 

 comrade or takes charge of an orphan monkey we do not call 

 its conduct moral." If this be admitted it follows that one of 

 the essential conditions for the display of moral qualities 

 depends upon the integrity of certain parts of the brain, with- 

 out which it would not be possible to recall the past or to 

 speculate about the future. Memory and foresight do not, of 

 course, confer moral qualities, but they do represent condi- 

 tions essential for the display of such humanitarian attributes. 



Only during the last century has any accurate information 

 been acquired as to which parts of the brain are concerned 

 with the intellectual functions. Even at the present moment 

 the terrible effects of the damage inflicted upon the brains of 

 patients suffering from what is popularly known as "sleeping 

 sickness" are opening new vistas of knowledge as to the parts 

 of the brain upon whose activities personality, the sentiments 

 and emotions, muscular skill, and intellectual and moral capa- 

 bilities depend. In scores of patients, during the last five 

 years, physicians have witnessed the most profound changes 

 in character and morals when this insidious disease has 

 destroyed certain small areas of the brain. 



Three centuries before the beginning of the Christian era 

 some of the wise men of Greece already recognised in the 

 brain the real organ of the mind; yet it was reserved for 

 modern times to confirm the accuracy of this early knowledge 

 and to extend it. In olden times the seat of the understand- 

 ing was placed in the heart, as every reader of the Old 

 Testament must be aware, although certain passages in the 



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