xxxviii Proceedings. [April 4th, 1916. 



terminations of the nerves which bring into the nervous system 

 special information concerning the animal's position in space ; 

 and its cortical mechanism developed in response to the need 

 for bringing this information under the control of other influences, 

 such as the nerves of vision, touch and the muscular sense, &c, 

 before it is transmitted to the muscles of the body as a whole, 

 the activities of which it co-ordinates so as to make quick and 

 nicely balanced responses possible. 



The cerebral cortex grew up in a similar way around the 

 central terminations of the olfactory nerve, which brings in to 

 the central nervous system information of a more highly affective 

 quality. It is a biological advantage for records of such ex- 

 periences to be brought under the influence of other sensory 

 impressions and be stored up so that they can be recalled in 

 memory on future occasions. The cerebral cortex is the 

 organ which develops to meet these requirements and so 

 becomes the chief instrument of discrimination, not merely for 

 impressions of smell but eventually for all the senses. 



The same Author read a second paper entitled " The 

 Commencement of the Neolithic Phase of Culture." 



Although there is fairly complete agreement as to the facts 

 relating to the phase of culture now commonly called " Azilian," 

 there are still wide discrepancies as to the significance of the 

 data. Because there is no evidence that the introducers of 

 this culture into Europe brought every one of the practices 

 which have somewhat arbitrarily been used to define the term 

 "Neolithic," most archaeologists have inclined to the opinion 

 that the Azilian culture ought to be definitely excluded from 

 the Neolithic, and regarded as a distinct Pre-Neolithic epoch ; 

 some writers (Professor H. F. Osborn, for example) even go so 

 far as to include it in the Palaeolithic. 



Professor Elliot Smith maintained that the evidence pointed 

 to the introducers of the Azilian culture as representing an early 

 wave of the Neolithic people themselves, coming probably from 

 Africa into Europe. He made the further suggestion that sporadic 

 bearers of the same culture probably made their way into Europe 



