176 BIOLOGY: GENERAL AND MEDICAL 



cion that it is a human quality not to be found among 

 lower animals. This is quite in keeping with the view of 

 Parmelee, who says, "self-consciousness cannot develop 

 very far before it becomes an idea, and its evolution as an 

 idea has been principally if not entirely among men." 



Mind. Mind may be regarded as a general term com- 

 prehending all of the phenomenon centralizing in that 

 part of the nervous system known as the cerebrum. It 

 comprises intelligence, consciousness, and self-conscious- 

 ness. When these begin, mind begins; as they develop, it 

 develops. It is only when mind reaches a certain develop- 

 ment that reason appears. Exactly at what point is not 

 yet determined. Efforts to show that animals lower than 

 anthropoid apes can reason seem to have failed. In the 

 anthropoid apes the faculty of reasoning is undoubtedly 

 present, though not to a degree that is able to cope with 

 more than the most simple problems. But this is not 

 remarkable, as the faculty of reasoning among men varies 

 greatly according to race and intellectual i. e., cerebral 

 development, as well as according to the possession of 

 the means of reasoning language, knowledge, etc. The 

 most elaborately developed brain of the man best trained 

 in language and possessed of the greatest sum of human 

 knowledge seems best able to reason correctly. 



It is difficult for one not acquainted with the details 

 of nervous structure to conceive of the complexity of 

 nervous activity arising in the course of a single and 

 apparently trifling act. A few moments ago, having clip- 

 ped some papers, you carelessly laid the sharp pointed 

 scissors on the desk where a little later they were covered 

 with some papers and a blotter. Moving your hand to 

 brush the accumulation aside, you felt a sharp prick, 

 found your hand involuntarily drawn away, and recog- 

 nized that you had unexpectedly injured yourself. The 

 point of the scissors touching the skin stimulated a 

 peripheral nerve ending in so violent fashion that a 

 double excitation followed, almost simultaneously regis- 

 tering pain in the receptive centres of the brain and 



