

1891.] Language and Max Müller. 957 
part of the brain affected. Certain areas of the brain preside over 
voluntary control of fingers, arms, legs, lips, lungs, etc., and move- 
ments of these to perform intelligent coördinate action are regu- 
lated by spots of brain surface called centers, which are nourished 
by special blood vessels. According to the extent of damage to 
these vessels will be the degree of paralysis, whether restricted or 
general, involving one or many bodily parts. 
Slanting diagonally downward and forward in the outer part of 
the brain, just above the ear, lie these centers that control the 
arm, leg, fingers, and speech parts, and this portion has been 
appropriately termed the “ symbolic field,” because through its 
exercise and integrity man is able to gesticulate, point, threaten, 
with hands or feet, or to regulate the motions of the diaphragm, 
larynx, tongue, lips, in a comparable manner, to produce con- 
ventional sounds that serve better purposes than making ges- 
tures, but to the same end,—to make himself understood. It is 
difficult for us to consider the regulation of sounds into language 
as equivalent to gesticulation, but nevertheless nature makes but 
little distinction between her methods of symbolizing in these 
ways. The savage uses gestures where his speech centers are 
poorly educated, and the linguist represses his use of bodily con- 
tortions because his words can make him better understood. The 
ear has been trained to understand the minute variations in sound 
involved in speaking, where previously the eye interpreted less 
satisfactorily the symbolic movements. 
And just as the symbolic field develops in man, so that part of 
the brain was built up and lifted the forehead into a more upright 
plane. But the fact that this symbolic field may be destroyed and 
thought remain shows that thought is not centered in that part, 
but is merely associated with it. To a great extent the mentality 
resides in the left frontal lobe, just in front of this symbolic field. 
This part may develop with or independently of the speech, leg, 
or arm centers, proving that thought is not language, but that 
language is merely a means of expressing thought, just as any 
other gesticulation is. 
The baby’s movements are at first badly regulated; he kicks, 
sprawls, and throws his arms, often in the wrong direction, when 
PA ees SN 
p Narta na hatin a Cer ei 

