64 THOUGHTS UPON THE MUSICAL SENSE [X. 



Kussmaul's admirably explained observations, Kast, Knoblauch, 

 and Oppenheim, among German pathologists, have offered 

 interesting contributions to this difficult and complex subject, 

 into which of course I cannot enter upon the present occasion. 



For the present purpose I merely wish to show that deficiency 

 in the musical faculty must always depend upon defect in the 

 anatomical structure of the auditory apparatus, the auditory 

 centre, or their means of connection. If this be so, the existence 

 of unmusical people constitutes no objection to the view I have 

 propounded as to the origin of the musical sense. 



But must we really admit that the musical talent of primitive 

 man was the same as our own ? Can it be conceived that, in 

 these remote times, there were born men who, educated in 

 one of our schools of music, would have produced a Haydn, 

 a Mozart, or Beethoven, or even an ordinary musician of 

 to-da}' ? 



I am quite sure that this admission will never be made. For 

 it is clear that the understanding of our highest music not only 

 needs the auditory apparatus and auditory centre, together with 

 the life-long training of these : something besides is absolutely 

 indispensable, a mind that is sensitive, impressionable, and highly 

 developed. 



I will enter rather more fully into this point. The frequently 

 mentioned auditory centre is not a mere supposition ; it is known 

 with tolerable certainty. When a certain part of the temporal 

 lobe of the cerebrum is destroyed in a dog or monkey, deafness 

 ensues, although the auditory apparatus remains uninjured. 

 Such animals do not suffer greatly in health ; they continue to 

 live, but remain permanently deaf And all the while the 

 sound-waves are still converted into nerve-impulses by the 

 auditory apparatus, and the impulses corresponding to the several 

 notes are still conveyed to the brain by the fibres of the auditory 

 nerve. But in the brain that organ is wanting by which these 

 impulses are transformed into sensations and are brought into 

 relation with consciousness ; the animal is 'psychically deaf,' as 

 the technical expression goes. 



If on the other hand we were able to remove every part of 

 the cerebrum except the auditory centre, then the mechanical 

 conditions necessary for the production of sound-sensations 

 would still remain, but the animal or the man would neverthe- 



