6522 



Reason and Instinct. 



Reason and Instinct. By the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, M.A. 

 (Concluded from p. 6491.) 



I turn now to the discussion of a somewhat different subject, but 

 still one having a near connection with that branch of our inquiry 

 which has till now occupied our attention. 



In an early portion of the present series of papers I observed that 

 the first conscious acts performed by a human infant are unques- 

 tionably Instinctive acts, and that weeks of its life must elapse before 

 it can be "decisively pronounced that Intelligence is fully operative, — 

 that the child understands, — that some of its actions are certainly, 

 though still possibly but in a small degree, under the influence of 

 something decidedly higher than Instinct" (Zool. 5457). These are 

 facts patent to every one who has a child of his own, or can obtain 

 admission to a friend's nursery. 



Now it would not serve any purpose were I to dwell upon the very 

 remarkable stages of development through which the brain of the 

 human foetus passes, from its first rudimentary appearance up to the 

 time of birth ; or the resemblance distinctly traceable between it, in 

 these its successive stages, and the several brains of the different 

 classes of vertebrate animals, as we traverse the scale in the upward 

 direction ; but I certainly do desire, in connection with the statements 

 just made relative to the human infant, to draw attention to the fact 

 that at the period of birth the human brain is still imperfectly developed; 

 not perhaps as to all its organs, but as to some two or three only. 

 The cerebellum, for instance, in which is believed to centre the power 

 or function of co-ordinating and regulating the motions of the various 

 members and parts of the body, is still very imperfectly formed ; and 

 what is much more to our purpose, so is the cerebrum, and that in 

 several particulars. The two halves of this portion of the brain are 

 not only symmetrical — a most significant token of imperfect or arrested 

 development — but the convolutions are much more simple, possess 

 fewer undulations, and are much less deep and thick in proportion 

 than in adults, and a period of years, to be passed under such circum- 

 stances of training and exercise of the faculties as successfully conduce 

 to their due improvement, must elapse before these imperfections give 

 place under a gradual, but unceasing, growth towards complete develop- 

 ment.* The cerebellum, however, reaches its perfect development 



* One or two minor imperfections of development might be quoted ; but il seems 

 scarcely necessary to do so. 



