H. W. MAGOUN 17 



available with emphasis mainly upon instinctive behaviour, supporting 

 the survival of the individual, in feeding, aggression or defence, as well as 

 survival of the species, in behaviour relating to sex. Even in Darwin's 

 Descent of Man (1871), for example, greater emphasis was placed upon an 

 exposition of sexual selection than upon development of the associational 

 and communicative functions of the brain, which are easily the most 

 strikingly distinctive features of human evolution. 



Darwin and Spencer might be rated cquivalcntly in the impressions 

 they made upon Pisarev and Sechcnov and, through these latter, upon 

 Pavlov and Russian neurophysiology. There is no question, however, of 

 the predominant influence of Spencer upon Hughlings Jackson and, 

 through him upon the formation of evolutionary concepts of the organiza- 

 tion and function of the brain in Western neurological thought. 



Contrasting features of their personalities and outlooks appeared to have 

 led Darwin and Spencer to develop reservations about one another. An 

 early phrenological characterization of Spencer (Spencer, 1904) con- 

 cluded: 'Such a head as this ought to be in the Church. The self-esteem is 

 very large.' Darwin's tendency to personal deprecation seemed, on the 

 other hand, to have amounted to a real sense of inferiority when compar- 

 ing himself with Spencer. Each seemed also to have cultivated a possibly 

 wilful ditiiculty in understanding the other's views. In a letter to Hooker 

 in 1868, Darwin (1925) wrote: 'I feel Painyeiiesis is stillborn. H. Spencer 

 says the view is quite difl:erent from his (and this is a great relief to me, as I 

 feared to be accused of plagiarism but utterly failed to be sure what he 

 meant, so thought it safest to give my view as almost the same as his), and 

 he says he is not sure he understands it.' 



In other letters, Darwin blew hot and cold. He characteristically 

 acknowledged Spencer's brilliance, but usually expressed some question 

 of the soundness or reliability of his views. In a note thanking Spencer for 

 a present of his Essays in 1858, Darwin wrote: 'Your remarks on the 

 general argument of the so-called development theory seem to me admira- 

 ble. I am at present preparing an Abstract of a larger work on the changes 

 of species; but I treat the subject simply as a naturalist, and not from a 

 general point of view; otherwise, in my opinion, your argument could 

 not have been improved on, and might have been quoted by me with 

 great advantage.' 



In a letter to Hooker in 1866, Darwin wrote: 'I have now read the last 

 No. of H. Spencer {Principles of Biology). It is wonderfully clever and I 

 daresay mostly true. I feel rather mean when I read him: I could bear and 

 rather enjoy feeling that he was twice as ingenious and clever as myself; but 



