126 HUXLEY 



After thus showing that no line of separation can 

 be drawn between man and the animals beneath him, 

 structurally considered, Huxley added his " belief that 

 the attempt to draw a psychical distinction is equally 

 futile, and that even the highest faculties of feeling and 

 of intellect begin to germinate in lower forms of life." 1 



For, in all the higher mammals, the structure and 

 functions of the nervous system are, fundamentally, 

 the same ; in the minutest microscopical details, the 

 sense-organs, the nerves, and spinal cord, and the 

 brain of a dog, an elephant, and an ape correspond to 

 the same organs in man. If any part of the mental 

 apparatus is injured or thrown out of gear, the result 

 is the same in each case — functional disturbance or 

 suspense. The dog and the horse behave as we be- 

 have ; nor can this be otherwise, since their sense- 

 organs report, of course with vast differences of re- 

 sult, to their central nervous systems the messages 

 that are transmitted by like apparatus to ours, and, 

 within the limits of their consciousness, they are af- 

 fected as we are affected, and their actions are ruled 

 accordingly. " If there is no ground for believing 

 that a dog thinks, neither is there any for believing 

 that he feels." To those familiar with the ways of 

 animals, there is no need to labour the point, and, 

 " in short," as Huxley says : — 



1 Man's Place in Nature, p. 109. 



