826 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the proof not only that the prevailing views in regard to the lack of 

 intelligence of such low organisms of the animal kingdom are erro- 

 neous, but also that their mental functions may be highly developed 

 without such intricate development of the nervous system as is pos- 

 sessed by the higher organized beings of less psychic capability. I 

 have witnessed how a South-Sea Islander was unable to take off a coat 

 which had been put on him in the regular way. It did not occur to 

 him to stretch one arm backward. The star-fish, however, easily frees 

 itself in the best possible manner from rings, firmly knotted thread- 

 ings, wrappings, and incumbrances, with which it has not previously 

 come in contact. Such observations must necessarily influence the 

 principles of inquiry. A large brain is required not for one single in- 

 tellectual act but for a multiplicity. I have found that when many 

 of the tiny ganglionic cells of the Echinodermata remain in organic 

 connection with only one spike, they are capable of doing more work 

 both as to quantity and quality than a smaller number will accomplish 

 under the same conditions. Hence it would appear that also with the 

 higher animals, and with man, the greater intelligence depends on the 

 greater number of ganglionic cells and their combined action rather 

 than on the relatively larger brain. In this way the inquiry into the 

 movements of marine animals directly leads up to the physiology of the 

 brain. Through comparison with that of the animal only is human 

 psychic activity to be understood, for it is the last and highest link of 

 a long chain of evolution whose gradations can only be recognized by 

 the aid of philogeny and physiology — i. e., through the comparison and 

 the history of evolution of functions. 



The most attractive problems of the future lie in this direction, and, 

 as soon as the labors in this field have borne more fruit, the different 

 views which now oppose each other will become reconciled. But in 

 other departments of science, too, the perception is dawning that it is 

 of far greater significance to ascertain by comparison the becoming, 

 the growing, the evolution, than to describe the phenomenon by itself 

 just as it happens to present itself to the observer whenever he thinks 

 fit to observe. 



In 1861 one of the foremost chemists of the period declared, "The 

 relations of a body to what it has been and to what it may become 

 are the essential part of chemistry " (Kekule). Instead of " chemis- 

 try," we might just as well say " morphology, or history of evolution*" 

 The same principle applies to physics, to astronomy, geology, and in 

 a certain sense even to the science of languages. For physics, too, 

 deals with the relations of a conglomeration of forces or of a body to 

 its own past and future. Its ideal is to predict the future of a body, 

 and to estimate its past from its present appearance. Astronomy, in 

 this respect, surpasses all sciences, because its prophecies are being 

 verified with most precision. Geology is essentially the history of the 

 evolution of the globe ; comparative philology endeavors, as it were, 



