DARWIN AND CONCEPTS OF BRAIN FUNCTION 

 H. W. Magoun 



It is appropriate in the Darwin Centennial Year (1959) to recall the 

 impressions made by a visit to South America upon a young graduate of 

 Cambridge whose studies, begun in theology, had turned instead to the 

 sciences. Darwin arrived in South America as a naturalist on the voyage of 

 H.M.S. Beagle, circumnavigating the globe. Reaching Buenos Aires, in 

 October of 1832, he found a violent revolution had broken out and 

 wrote, 'I was glad to escape on board a packet bound tor Monte Video, 

 the second town of importance on the banks of the Plata' (Darwin, 1S39). 



His young man's eye was critical, and his opinions mixed: 'The Plata', 

 he wrote, 'looks hke a noble estuary on the map; but it is in truth a poor 

 affair. A wide expanse of muddy water, it has neither grandeur nor 

 beauty. At one time of the day the two shores, both of which are extremely 

 low, could just be distinguished from the deck. The land, with the one 

 exception of the Green Mount, 450 feet higli, from which it takes its name, 

 is level. Very little of the undulating grassy plain is enclosed, but near the 

 town, there are a few hedgebanks. There is something very delightful in 

 the free expanse, where nothing guides or bounds your walk, yet I am 

 disappointed as regards scenery.' 



The short surveying trips of the Beagle up anci down the coast left 

 Darwin with time ashore. 'In the sporting line, I never enjoyed anything 

 so much as ostrich hunting with the wild soldiers. They catch the birds in 

 a fine, animated chase by throwing two balls which are attached to the 

 ends of a thong so as to entangle their legs.' (One was a new species, later 

 named Rhea Darwinii.) The young man took an interest in gaining dex- 

 terity with the bolas: 'One day as I was amusing myself by galloping and 

 whirling the balls around my head, by accident the free one struck a 

 bush and, like magic, caught one hind leg of my horse; the other ball was 

 then jerked out of my hand, and the horse was fairly secured. The gauchos 

 roared with laughter ; they cried out that they had seen every sort of an 

 animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself 



On a trip into the interior, Darwin's party stayed at an estancia belong- 

 ing to one of the greatest land owners of the country, with whom was a 

 captain in the Army. 'Considering their station, their conversation was 



I 



