Page Four 



EVOLUTION 



August, 1929 



Brains — How Come? 



By ALLAN STRONG BROMS 

 VIII 



A PE became Man when he learned to talk. For taFk 



gave him thought. No overnight matter, that. It 



took a million years. For there's a lot behind it ; new 



brain centers, new muscular control, an understanding 



ear, a wise eye, man's organization of mind. 



Our ape ancestors probably had the essential physi- 

 cal equipment, such as vocal cords and muscles, tongue 

 and all the rest, without having learned to use them 

 in real talk. At least not in wordy talk 

 about ideas. They had plenty of feel- 

 ings, but mighty few ideas. So their 

 first talk was about feelings. With 

 voice of course, but quite as much by 

 grimace and gesture. Crooning ten- 

 derness, love's sweet nothings, chatter- 

 ing' excitement, screaming anger, bel- 

 lowing defiance, wailing sorrow, whim- 

 pering hunger, all without words. 



The first real words were warning 

 cries, and soon, commands to do or not 

 to do. Primitive equivalents of our 

 'T-ook out!" "Beat it!" "Stop, Look 

 and Listen," "Come and get it." Next 

 they probably named each other and 

 the common things of their lives, and 

 told each other what to do about 

 those things. Very simply, of course. 

 It took a long time before they made 

 up honest-to-goodness sentences, full 

 of "ands, ifs, huts, and hences," de- 

 scriptive adjectives, modifying ad- 

 verbs, and all the what-nots of our 

 expressive languages. Such intricate 

 inventions came only as the speech 

 centers of man's brain developed. 



Significantly enough, those speech centers are bet- 

 ter developed on one side of his brain. Usually the left 

 side, to go with his normal right-handedness (also 

 under left-brain control). Speech always was mixed 

 up with gestures, and we still talk a lot with our hands. 

 Ouite naturally, therefore, the speech centers developed 

 more on the left side of the brain. And it probably 

 helped; that man. for the last few thousand years at 

 least, has been picturing his ideas and writing his talk 

 (again mostly with his skilled right hand). Inevitably, 

 too, the related higher speech centers for understand- 

 ing the meanings of words heard, of words seen, 

 located themselves largely nearby on the same talk-side. 



Belonging together, the various ways of acquiring 

 and expressing meanings became mentally tied together. 

 Things seen, pictures drawn, names heard and spoken, 

 words written, all used together, were kept together in 

 the brain. But not in one brain center. For already 

 each sense and muscle had its own established brain 

 center, and each stayed put, but took its share in the 



Language Centers in Man's Brain 

 .\fter Brcuil 

 After .Janifs 



complicated job of talking. Complicated, and more 

 complicated ! For towards the end, man made a great 

 nivention, a new set of pictures, the letters of the 

 alphal)et. Symbols these, just meaning sounds, talking 

 I)ictures. Man spells them together into words, writ- 

 ten as they sound, spoken as written. Handy and last- 

 ing. But what a job for his brain ! Old brain centers 

 made over, new ones developed, all kept working to- 

 gether by long-distance nerve connec- 

 tions. 



But look what it means to man. 

 Without words he could not think, not 

 like a modern. For man thinks with 

 words. Thought is just silent talking. 

 Childreh think a lot out loud. So do 

 people who live much alone. So do 

 we, muttering thoughts, making lip 

 movements. 



Now words can mean one thing, 

 or a group of like things, or the like- 

 ness between them, or doings to them. 

 They can mean real stuff, or general 

 qualities, or doings done, and even 

 nothing at all. For one can acquire 

 words with meanings, or empty ones 

 without meanings, beyond sound and 

 spelling. If they mean real things to 

 Us. they serve as a mental shorthand 

 fur truthful and workable thinking. 

 But if they are empty words, just 

 habits of utterance which we rever- 

 ence and mouth, they do sad things to 

 our thinking, or what passes for think- 

 ing. They may satisfy our minds, 

 and sound like the wisdom of the 

 ages, but they will trick us into mere 

 zcordiiii/. Then we just think we think. 



Real thinking is also wording, l.nit a different kind. 

 1 he words have real contents of meaning. They mean 

 real things, real qualities of things, real likenesses 

 between things, real ideas. Because they serve us as 

 mental shorthand, we could never have attained to 

 Iiiiiuan thinking at all had we not found words to think 

 with. If we watch our words, avoid making them 

 empty sounds, we can keep them useful. The best way 

 is to keep our contacts with fact, through scientific 

 ex]ieriment and observation, through practical arts. 

 Only in these worlds of fact can we keep our words full 

 of true meanings. Words like that keep our thinking 

 straight to guide our doing. For truth works. 



That, in fact, is the test of truth — it works. Try it 

 on your own ideas. Give your wordings the once over. 

 Words were the making of man. With speech he 

 passed his ideas around, traded them for a lot more 

 others. But ideas spread by word of mouth are easily 

 twisted, or even lost. Writing solved that problem. 



