CoGiTic Evolution of Man 601 



studied the highest and most evolved product; they have failed 

 to trace step by step the manner in which that product was 

 evolved. 



The newer and more scientific attitude is well expressed by 

 S. J. Holmes thus (183: 9): "Instinct, memory, volition, and 

 reason are all parts of that general process of adjustment of 

 the organism to its environment, in which life in all its stages 

 essentially exists. As we pass from lower to higher forms we 

 have an increase in the complexity and perfection of the adjust- 

 ments; the corresponding increase in space and in time, in 

 definiteness and in generality, but everywhere it is * the adjust- 

 ment of internal relations to external relations.'" 



If mentality represents the flow and activity of a special 

 cogitic energy, that is more perfect, labile, and condensed than 

 cognitic energy, then, just as we have given reasons for regard- 

 ing protoplasm as the physical conductor for and storer of biotic 

 energy, and chromatin of the cell nuclei as the conductor for 

 cognitic energy, so we may inquire and try to ascertain how 

 far cogitic energy is associated with, stored by, and conducted 

 by ganglion cells, or their associated dendrites. 



Deferring for a little any proof of such it is now conceded by 

 all workers in animal psychology that if we start with primitive 

 and simple members of such groups as we have studied 'n 

 Chapter XIX, like the Cephalopoda, the Arachnida, the Insecta, 

 the Rodentia, etc., the increasing abundance and complexity 

 of nerve cells, and particularly of brain masses, are constantly 

 correlated with advancing specialization in acts that denote 

 mentality of a steadily progressive kind. So in some groups 

 of ants that even excel some races of man in mento-social organ- 

 ization the brain in size, and in comparison to head and body 

 weight, compares favorably with that of the highest apes 

 (p. 553). 



To study, therefore, the profoundly complex structure of the 

 brain, and the equally complicated mental acts shown by man 

 and the more mentally-evolved animals, such as ants, beavers, 

 and dogs, is alike logically and morphologically misleading. 

 Loeb has often and rightly emphasized that it is only by gradual 



