280 FROM FISH TO PHILOSOPHER 



by the writer in an essay which treats the subject his- 

 torically from Descartes to T. H. Huxley {186, pp. 109- 

 136}. 



The quotations from Tyndall are taken from that au- 

 thor's Belfast Address {189, pp. 190, 195}, and Hume's 

 remarks are quoted from a reprint of his Treatise {177, 

 pp. 634-636}. 



In any discussion of the time-binding quality of con- 

 sciousness, it may be recalled that the cerebral cortex 

 in the mammals is an outgrowth of the nose brain/ the 

 most anterior portion of the brain stem of the lower ver- 

 tebrates. G. Elliot Smith {172, p. 190} has pointed out 

 that the sense of smell is, so to speak, *the cement that 

 binds into one experience all the events that intervene 

 between anticipation and consummation. By conferring 

 upon consciousness in the lower animals the element of 

 cohesion it makes possible the ultimate appreciation of 

 time and space, the ability to look backward and for- 

 ward, to remember and to anticipate. In these possibili- 

 ties lies the germ of the aptitude to learn from experi- 

 ence and to attain skill in modifying behaviour in accord- 

 ance with the changing conditions of the outside world.' 



Among the vertebrates up to the primates, the sense of 

 smell is dominant: the world presents itself as a flux of 

 fluid, interpenetrating, shifting, but always highly sig- 

 nificant odors, whether water- or air-borne. However, 

 with the development of binocular vision in the primates 

 and, subsequently, increased emphasis on the tactile 

 sense in man, the olfactory sense lost its priority. No 

 better example can be afforded than the matter of sexual 

 stimuli: whatever the efforts of the perfume manufac- 

 turers, the human male is governed in sexual matters 

 primarily by the senses of sight and touch. 



Haldane {176} has expressed a view related to that 

 presented here: 



*We use our brains for thinking, but it is a mistake to 

 suppose that the brain is primarily a thinking organ. 



