October 25, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



647 



vexed question, and one in the solution of 

 which we have little solid ground to go 

 upon beyond the material changes produced 

 in the brain and the consideration of the 

 time that these might reasonably be sup- 

 posed to take in their development. 



Darwin was inclined to believe that ar- 

 ticulate speech came at an early period in 

 the history of the stem-form of man. Ro- 

 manes gives a realistic picture of an indi- 

 vidual decidedly superior to the anthropoid 

 ape, but distinctly below the existing sav- 

 ages. This hypothetical form, half simian, 

 half human, was, according to his sponsor, 

 probably erect ; he had arrived at the 

 power of shaping flints as tools, and was a 

 great adept at communicating with his fel- 

 lows by gesture, vocal tones and facial 

 grimaces. 



With this accomplished ancestor in his 

 mental eye, it is not surprising that Ro- 

 manes was inclined to consider that artic- 

 ulate speech may have come at a later pe- 

 riod than is generally supposed. 



At the time that Romanes gave expres- 

 sion to these views he was not acquainted 

 with the verj^ marked structural peculiar- 

 ities which distinguish the human brain in 

 the region of the speech center. I do not 

 refer to the development of the brain in 

 other districts, because possibly Romanes 

 might have held that the numerous accom- 

 plishments of his speechless ancestor might 

 be sufficient to account for this ; I merely 

 allude to changes which may reasonably be 

 held to have taken place in direct con- 

 nection with the gradual acquisition of 

 speech. 



These structural characters constitute 

 one of the leading peculiarities of the 

 human cerebral cortex, and are totally 

 absent in the brain of the anthropoid ape 

 and of the speechless microcephalic idiot. 



Further, it is significant that in certain 

 anthropoid brains a slight advance in the 

 same direction may occasionally be faintly 



traced, whilst in certain human brains a 

 distinct backward step is sometimes no- 

 ticeable. The path which has led to this 

 special development is thus in some meas- 

 ure delineated. 



It is certain that these structural addi- 

 tions to the human brain are no recent ac- 

 quisition by the stem-form of man, but are 

 the result of a slow evolutionary growth — a 

 growth which has been stimulated by the 

 laborious efforts of countless generations to 

 arrive at the perfect coordination of all the 

 muscular factors which are called into play 

 in the production of articulate speech. 



Assuming that the acquisition of speech 

 has afforded the chief stimulus to the gen- 

 eral development of the brain, and thereby 

 giving it a rank high above any other fac- 

 tor which has operated in the evolution of 

 man, it would be wrong to lose sight of the 

 fact that the first step in this upward move- 

 ment must have been taken by the brain 

 itself. Some cerebral variation — probably 

 trifling and insignificant at the start, and 

 yet pregnant with the most far-reaching pos- 

 sibilities — has in the stem-form of man con- 

 tributed that condition which has rendered 

 speech possible. This variation, strength- 

 ened and fostered by natural selection, has 

 in the end led to the great double result of 

 a large brain with wide and extensive asso- 

 ciation areas and articulate speech, the two 

 results being brought about by the mutual 

 reaction of the one process upon the other, 

 D. J. Cunningham. 



PROFESSOR PAWLOW'S RESEARCHES ON 

 THE PHYSIOLOGY OF SECRETION. 



The publication, last year, of the condi- 

 tions whibh are to govern the award of the 

 Nobel prizes was followed not long since by 

 the announcement that Professor J. P. 

 Pawlow of St. Petersburg had been desig- 

 nated, with Professor Niels R. Finsen of 

 Copenhagen, as the first recipient of this 

 hoaor, for the most important discovery in 



