40 DR. BATEMAN ON DARWINISM. [m. 



writer far more distinguished for brilliancy of expres- 

 sion than for profundity of thought. In substance 

 it consists of three propositions : 



" i. That articulate speech is a distinctive attribute 

 of man, and that the ape and lower animals do not 

 possess a trace of it. 



" 2. That articulate speech is a universal attribute 

 of man, that all races have a language, or the 

 capacity of acquiring it. 



" 3. The immateriality of the faculty of speech." 



It is perhaps hardly correct to call this last point a 

 " proposition," nor is it easy to determine precisely 

 its purport or its relevance. We are told farther on 

 that although " a certain normal and healthy state 

 of cerebral tissue is necessary for the exterior mani- 

 festation of the faculty of speech," it by no means 

 follows that speech is located in a particular portion 

 of the brain, or is the " result of a certain definite 

 molecular condition of the cerebral organ." Of 

 course it does not follow; but the conclusion, how- 

 ever interesting to phrenologists and materialists, is 

 irrelevant to the discussion of the Darwinian theory, 

 or to that of the origin of language. In such in- 

 quiries all that any one needs to know is that the 

 faculty of speech implies, among other things, the 

 presence of a brain, and whether this " faculty " is 



