318 THE GORILLA. 
velopment, which all confirm his view, Professor Owen took the posterior 
enlargement of the cerebral hemispheres so as to cover the cerebellum, with the 
other characters above noted in connexion with this, as forming the best technical 
distinction of that highest Mammalian group which he named Archencephala, 
He insists on the reality of the character and contends for its importance. As 
to the matter of fact, with directly opposing testimony where wilful falsehood 
cannot be attributed to either party, it is not always easy to find out the truth, 
but the deliberate assertion of one of the ablest observers and perhaps the most 
experienced of his time, supported by figures professing to be carefully taken 
from nature must have great weight, and it seems probable that the counter- 
statements of some very eminent men are due rather to difference of expression. 
and interpretation than of simple fact. 
Taking a general view of the whole subject it is antecedently probable that 
the comparative development of the brain should furnish the most important 
characters and no one can reasonably doubt the practical result of Owen’s 
system being a great improvement in the natural arrangement of Mammalia. In 
the case of the Lyencephala the peculiar character of the brain corresponds 
with a lower type of the reproductive system and the section is unquestionably 
natural. In respect to Gyrencephala and Lissencephala the difference in the 
character of the brain is very striking and the groups thus associated are felt 
to be natural, nor are the exceptions more numerous on either side than are 
always to be expected in the way of special modifications and transition forms 
where we are obliged to place objects according to their affinities, though 
departing from technica] characters. Now we are none of us perhaps disposed 
to consider the’ difference between man and the highest Gyrencephala as less 
than that between these and the Lissencephala. In some way we feel sure that 
the human race is elevated above all other creatures, and as in all other known 
instances superiority is connected with special development of the brain, that is 
what we have to expect here; as in other instances the enlargement forward, 
backward, and by gyrations of the cerebral hemispheres is the test of elevation 
of structure, so here it is what we are led to expect. We know that im the 
human brain, even in the lowest varieties of our race, the posterior cerebral lobes 
cover and even pass beyond the cerebellum. We are assured that even in the 
highest section of the Quadrumana, which must be admitted to be on the whole 
nearest in structure to man, this is never the case. We have thus a character 
drawn from the structure of the brain, confirmatory of all other reasons for 
assigning to man that elevation in a Zoological system which in other ways we 
know him to possess, and it is really easier to suppose that some ingenious and 
able men are led away by theoretical prepossessions in their mode of estimating 
and expressing what they see than to question the direct testimony of one who 
hag done more for the comparative and theoretical anatomy of the Vertebrate 
gub-kingdom than any of his contemporaries and has himself dissected the 
brain of at least one species in nearly every genus of Mammals, when what he 
tells us is probable in itself and agrees with many important statements by 
others. Until we obtain better evidence we must for ourselves adhere to Owen's 
views and believe the facts he records. Some of our readers may have smiled 
