Mammalia: Nervous System 723 



highly specialized, which might be in the corpus striatum of birds or 

 the pallial cortex of mammals. All of this is purely speculative, but 

 study of the vertebrate brain cannot fail to give rise to questions of 

 this sort for which, at present, nothing better than speculative answers 

 can be offered. The attempt of the conscious mind to understand itself 

 resembles the effort of the rotating kitten to make its head go faster 

 than the tip of its short tail. In both cases there is much whirling in 

 circles. But either is a healthful exercise and affords some satisfaction 

 so long as the pursuer of the truth or the tail is not distressed by the 

 futility of his effort. In many of life's enterprises, there is more joy in 

 pursuit than in possession. 



