476 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



gressive ascent in the scale from the fish to man. We have compared the sepa- 

 rate parts of each, showing that the skull, brain and teeth have kept pace each 

 with the other in their respective places, no one ahead of the other, but gradually 

 ascending in the scale. We have seen how nature improved on her previous ef- 

 forts. We have shown that where an improvement was needed it was made ; 

 and we can readily see why a fish's tooth was not placed in man's head or vice- 

 versa. We have also demonstrated that the near approach of an animal's tooth 

 to man's indicated a near approach of that animal's brain to man's. We have- 

 described the vast differences that exist between diff"erent animals, and compara- 

 tively with man, and this all shows that the nearer an animal's tooth approaches- 

 to man's in shape, size, and anatomical construction, the nearer that animal's 

 brain approaches to the brain of man. In closing we cannot do better than to- 

 quote from the immortal Agassiz : He says, " It is evident that there is a mani- 

 fest progress in the succession of beings on the surface of the globe. This prog- 

 ress consists in an increasing similarity to the Hving races, and among the verte- 

 brates, especially, in their increasing similarity to man. But this connection is 

 not the consequence of a direct lineage between the races of diff'erent ages." 

 Again we quote, "The link by which they are connected is of a higher and im- 

 material nature ; and their connection is to be sought in the view of the Creator 

 himself, whose aim in forming the Earth, in allowing it to undergo the successive 

 changes which geology has pointed out, and creating successively all the different 

 types of animals which have passed away, was to introduce man upon the surface 

 of the globe. Man is the end toward which all animal creation has tended, from, 

 the first appearance of the first Palseozic fishes." 



ECCENTRICITY AND IDIOSYNCRASY, i 



WILLIAM A. HAMMOND, M. D. 



Eccentricity. — Persons whose minds deviate in some one or more notable- 

 respects from the ordinary standard, but yet whose mental processes are not di-^ 

 rectly at variance with that standard, are said to be eccentric. Eccentricity is 

 generally inherent in the individual, or is gradually developed in him from the- 

 operation of unrecognized causes as he advances in years. If an original condi- 

 tion, it may be shown from a very early period of life, his plays, even, being, 

 different from those of other children of his age. Doubtless it then depends uponr 

 some peculiarity of brain structure, which, within the limits of the normal range, 

 produces individuality of mental action. 



But eccentricity is not always an original condition, for, under certain cir- 

 cumstances, it may be acquired. A person, for instance, meets with some cir- 

 cumstance in his life which tends to weaken his confidence in human nature. He 

 accordingly shuns mankind, by shutting himself up in his own house and refusing 



1 An extract from a Treatise on Insanity shortly to be published by D. Appleton & Co. 



