14 



are centres for sight, for hearing, for taste, for smell, and 

 the organic sensations, and that different centres preside 

 over different muscular movements. I once had under my 

 observation a rustic who had received an injury to the 

 speech-organ, which is well known to exist behind the left 

 orbit. He had attempted to kiss a milkmaid. The young 

 lady, with undoubted propriety but indefensible severity, 

 had repelled him with a knitting-needle. The needle 

 jjassed over the left eye and through the papery bones at 

 the back of the orbit into the centre in question. The 

 result was, that while intelligence was unimpaired, co-ordi- 

 nated speech was impossible. The lad could unrlerstand 

 what was said to him, but any attempt at reply on his part, 

 when it came to anything at all, merely resulted in the use 

 of quite a different word from what he intended. 



There is a remarkable and well- authenticated case on 

 record of a facile linguist who inflicted severe injuries by a 

 pistol-shot on the frontal lobes of his brain. He recovered, 

 but with the loss of two languages. He had literally shot 

 them away, but he could stiU speak fairly well in a third. 



We may say, then, that there is good ground for be- 

 lieving that special centres of the cortex subserve special 

 functions. But when we remember the interwoven struc- 

 ture and interdependent parts of the nervous system, I 

 think we must add that they do so with the concurrence 

 and co-operation of the whole nervous system. There is 

 evidence, I repeat, to show that scientific centres do not 

 act independently of the concurrence of the entire nervous 

 system. 



Of one thing we are quite sure, that the development of 

 the brain is proportional to the development of the mind. 

 The development of the cortex is greater in ci\"ilised than 

 in uncivilised races; it is greatest in men of undoubted 

 mental superiority. It is gi'eater in men than in the mon- 

 key, in the monkey than in the dog, and it decreases in 

 the descending series with the decrease in animal intelli- 

 gence. The weight of the brain is likewise, ceteris parilus, 

 proportional to mental development. It is significant that 

 in civilised communities wherein female intelhgence has 

 been comparatively uncultivated the female brain is 

 smaller than it ought to be, while in savage tribes, where 

 so much intelligent labour falls to the lot of woman, her 

 brain bears favourable comparison with that of the man. 



Measurements of the ekull show that the modem Parisian 



