HIGHER FUNCTIONS 181 



inherent inadequacy of a morphological method of study. 

 In dealing with the intelligence of Mammals the problem 

 becomes, in great measure, centred in the ascertainable 

 channels of cerebral education afforded by the several 

 senses, and the study of those educable fields of cerebral 

 cortex with which these senses are associated. In this 

 way we may regard the intelligence of a Mammal as a 

 thing not wholly separated from its anatomical structure, 

 and therefore not wholly outside the province of, nor 

 entirely unexplained by, a purely morphological study. 

 Within the limits of knowledge, admittedly very imper- 

 fect, intelligence as a summation of cerebral possibilities 

 may be said to be a thing which falls within the province 

 of the anatomist; a thing concerning the evolution of 

 which he can glean some definite ideas by the methods 

 of comparative anatomy. It becomes merely a question 

 of academic argument to deal with the next general 

 proposition as enunciated by D wight: " Reason, involving 

 as it does general ideas, can by no possibility have been 

 evolved." If we regard this formation of " general ideas " 

 merely as the product of a specially perfected type of 

 cerebral mechanism, a mechanism which we may see in 

 every stage of increasing perfection in existing forms, 

 then we are bound to admit that the faculty of reason 

 itself is merely an extension of evolutionary development 

 of the rieopallium; and, indeed, there is no adequate 

 ground for doubting this. Despite the pitfalls that may 

 occur over the use of mere words, " reason" is a product 

 of evolution just as much as is, say, the tactile association 

 area of the cerebral cortex. Dwight's third proposition 

 that, "It is very evident that no process of survival 

 of the fittest could have led to higher ideals of conduct," 

 is only likely to catch us tripping by the introduction of 

 the phrase "process of survival of the fittest " in place 

 of the previously used word " evolution." The employ- 

 ment of this phrase is evidently not due to chance, since 

 it gives occasion for a picture, so easily drawn, of savage 



