344 



SCIENCE. 



in enunciation of words was subsequently developed. The 

 hands of our progenitors were adapted to climbing trees 

 and by subsequent training are made dexterous in us in 

 the use of tools. The point I desire to bring prominently 

 into view is, that the speech faculty has for its basis 

 nothing more important than prehensile abilities. The 

 mechanic is entitled to the same amount of respect as 

 the linguist ; in fact, the mechanic is more apt to have 

 acquired a respectable amount of skill in the use of his 

 tools, as generally his labor is directed to some useful 

 and definite end ; not necessarily so with the linguist, 

 his acquisition of a few jargons frequently causes him 

 to be mistakenly regarded as intellectual. It is not the 

 ability to use tools or to speak that elevates man above 

 his fellow animals, for man is not the only animal that 

 speaks or uses tools. The intellectual differences be- 

 tween men consist in the greater power of co-ordination 

 and correlation of faculties. 



Dr. M. Dax, in 1836, designated the left anterior lobe 

 of the brain as the seat of language, because loss of 

 speech often coexisted with disease of this part, though 

 the labors of Bouilland previously had paved the way 

 for this definiteness. Aubertin and Broca finally assigned 

 this faculty as centralized in the "operculum," and Dr. 

 Wm. A. Hammond (20), in reviewing the subject, con- 

 cludes that : " The integrity of the posterior part of the 

 third frontal convolution, and perhaps of the second, is 

 indispensable to the normal operation of the function of 

 speech." Hughlings Jackson, and Ferrier agree with 

 Broca in restricting the location to the operculum, but 

 Dr. Hammond (20) claims : 



1. "That the organ of language is situated in both 

 hemispheres, and in that part which is nourished by the 

 middle cerebral artery. 



2. " That while the more frequent occurrence of right 

 hemiplegia, in connection with aphasia, is in great part 

 the result of the anatomical arrangements of the ar- 

 teries which favors embolism on that side, there is strong 

 evidence to show that the left side of the brain is more 

 intimately connected with the faculty of speech than the 

 right." 



I would like to suggest to the advocates of opercular 

 and insular localization an idea which has probably not 

 been previously advanced, to wit : The sinistral nature 

 of central cerebral speech innervation has, doubtless, 

 some relation to the azygous tendencies of the parts con- 

 cerned therein ; for example, the tongue, uvula, maxilla;, 

 vocal cords, etc., though not strictly fused or impaired, 

 present peculiarities of structure and synchronism of 

 motion of the bi-laterally placed parts widely different from 

 those of the extremities, which could easily influence in- 

 nervation to centralize upon one side of the brain, par- 

 ticularly when favored by the better blood supply afford- 

 ed by the left middle cerebral artery. Were the two 

 hands of man joined so as to restrict motion mainly to a 

 perpendicular plane, as in the case of the lower jaw, then 

 we might expect the summit of the ascending frontal 

 convolution on the left side to develop over the corres- 

 ponding part on the right side as a centre for arm 

 motions. But this matter of localization has not been 

 firmly established. Dr. E. C. Spitzka, before the Medi- 

 cal Society of the County of New York in 1877, reviewed 

 " The Localization of Cerebral Diseases in the Light of 

 recent Anatomical Discoveries" (22). Spitzka acknowl- 

 edged that "the fibres which ultimately abut in the 

 hypoglossal and facial nerve nuclei can be traced into the 

 operculum and island, giving us an anatomical basis for 

 the aphasic symptom," but insisted that "our faculty of 

 speech is certainly more complex than is generally sup- 

 posed, and the terms amnesic and ataxic aphasia, by no 

 means exhaust the possible pathological interferences 

 with its delicate mechanism. The first step in the 

 acquirement of speech is its phonetic element. We hear 

 a word or sound, and as far as it is a mere sound impres- 

 sion it is registered in a sensory area of the cortex. 



We then experiment, as it were, with our motor appar- 

 tus, until we find the combination requisite to re- 

 peat said word or sound. This motor innervation 

 has its conscious seat in Meynert's region, while the sen- 

 sory perception is located in a distant area (probably, 

 though not certainly) the occipital lobe. Now in order 

 that the sensory perception may control the "correct- 

 ness " of the motor expression the two must be associ- 

 ated. It will then be indifferent, whether the sensory 

 center, the motor center, or the associating band be de- 

 stroyed, we will have aphasia in either case. And there 

 are still more intimate relations which may be equally 

 interfered with, causing either aphasia, agraphia, alexia, or 

 a combination of any two of these, or all." * * * " Any 

 intricate intellectual processes must involve the greater 

 part, or the whole, of one hemisphere." This was a pos- 

 teriori completely, and "localizers" should not fail to 

 read the proceedings of that meeting carefully. These 

 views are consistent with the theory I recently presented 

 to the American Neurological Society concerning the 

 histogenetic function of nerve cells in opposition to their 

 being " force producers." Spitzka has shown that the 

 Island of Reil has nothing whatever to do with the de- 

 velopment of the speech faculty. In some aberrant 

 forms he found this lobe largely developed. It would 

 seem that primarily this region has, if it have any connec- 

 tion at all with speech innervation, only a certain con- 

 venience of situation, an accidental contiguity to certain 

 fasciculi which was taken advantage of as the speech 

 faculty developed. 



(1) . Ziemssen's Cyclopaedia. 



(2) . " Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals." 



(3) . " The Brain as an organ of the Mind." 



(4) . "The Cat.' 



(5) . "On the Hypothesis that Animals are Automata 

 and its history." 



(6) . Op. Cit. 



(7) . The Duke of Argyll, in Nature. See " SCIENCE," 

 Vol. I, p. 24. 



(8) . "Anatomical uses of the Cat." 



(9) . Houzeau. " Etude sur les facultes mentalcs des 

 animaux comparces a celles de Vhomme, Mons. 1872. 

 Bechstein "Naturgeschichte der Hof und Stubetivogel., 

 C. G. Leroy, Intelligence and Perfectibility of Animals." 



(10) . "Are languages Institutions? Contemporary 

 Review. 



(11) . " Origine du Langage," Chap. III. 



(12) . Naturliche Schopfungsgeschichte." 

 13. Op. Cit. 



(14) . " Ueber die Taubstummen " u. s. w. Schleswig, 



1853, 5. 54- , ^ . , 



(15) . Carpenter s Physiology, p. 727. 



(16) . Principles of Biology, Vol. I., p. 157. 



(17) . Ibid, Chap. V., p. 184. 



(18) . Loc. Cit., p. 187. 



(19) . "Physiology of the Mind. 



(20) . "Diseases of the Nervous System," Seventh 

 Edition, 1881, p. 182, et seq. 



(21) . E. C. Seguin, Quarterly Journal of Psycholog- 

 ical Medicine, Jan. 1868. 



(22) . Journal Nervous and Mental Disease, Vol. IV, 



PP- 724-734- 



^THER. 

 By Pliny Earle Chase. 



Professor of Philosophy in Haverford College, Pa. 



The laws of asthereal action and re-action are laws of 

 action and re-action in an elastic atmosphere. 



The following well known laws have an important 

 bearing upon photodynamics and other asthereal re- 

 searches: 



1. Cyclical activities may often be accurately repre- 

 sented by formulas which introduce mean or average ve- 



