184 MAN IN THE SCALE OF BEING. 



relations to the rational consciousness in humanity. 

 In treating of the " Upper Limb in Man," he contrasts 

 it with the same structures in the Quadrumand, and 

 after pointing out the essential differences, says, " The 

 principle on which the completeness of the upper limb 

 is based consists in its purposes as an instrument for 

 acting on matter, in terms of his human faculty of 

 thinking in space." He believed that speech was 

 conferred upon man by an immediate or Divine pro- 

 cess or act, that man has no control over language — he 

 is merely an unconscious agent in its changes and 

 progress. 



In his lecture on the skull and brain, he enter- 

 tained the firm conviction that " the human brain 

 exhibits in its geometrical proportions and mass a 

 great superiority over the brain of any other animal 

 — a superiority similar to that presented by the human 

 bones, joints, muscles, and organs of sense," and that 

 " its structural and functional completeness distinguish 

 it from every other form of brain." Goodsir held 

 the doctrine that symmetry of brain has more to 

 do with the higher faculties than bulk or form. 

 Bichat entertained a similar opinion, as he looked to 

 want of symmetry in the two sides of the cerebrum as 

 a cause of insanity. Strange to say, the brain of the 

 man of genius, Bichat himself, was found to be remark- 

 ably non-symmetrical. In showing "the position of 

 man in the scale of being," he holds that the revealed 

 record should be taken into account in the gener;il 

 discussion of the subject : and that man in his consti- 



