89 



The object of my paper to- night has been to test Darwinism 

 by recent researches in reference to tlie faculty of Articulate 

 Language. 



My first point has been to show, and I must leave it to you 

 to judge how far I have succeeded in showing, that animals do 

 not possess a trace of articulate language, and therefore that 

 this faculty establishes a difference not of degree but of kind 

 between them and man, and I need not remind you how much 

 stress Mr. Darwin lays upon the difference of kind in contra- 

 distinction to that of degree. 



I have then thought it imperative to enter fully into the 

 much-vexed question of the Localization of Speech; for as the 

 remarkable similarity between the brain of man and that of the 

 ape cannot be disputed, if the seat of human speech could be 

 positively traced to any particular part of the brain, the Dar- 

 winian could say that although the ape could not speak, he 

 possessed the germ of that faculty, and that in subsequent 

 generations, by the process of evolution, the speech oentre^^ 

 would become more developed, and the ape would then speak. 



I have endeavoured, however imperfectly, to show that none 

 of the various theories as to the seat of language will stand the 

 test of an impartial scrutiny. I have shown, and that upon the 

 most indisputable authority, that persons could talk when the 

 presumed seat of speech was invaded by an enormous tumour, 

 completely disorganized by disease, or destroyed by a pistol-shot ! 



With these facts before me, I am tempted to ask whether 

 speech, like the soul, may not be an attribute, the compre- 

 hension of which is beyond the limits of our finite minds? 



When we talk about the faculty of speech, have we any clear 

 and definite notions as to what we mean ? Does the loss of it 

 necessarily imply organic lesion of structure — material 

 damage f ^ If it were so, how can we account for the cases 

 recorded in which restoration of the power of speech was due to 

 the effect of a severe mental shock ? 



AVe are all familiar with the story in Herodotus of the son of 

 Croesus, who had never been known to speak, but who, at the 

 siege of Sardis, being overcome with astonishment and terror at 

 seeing the king, his father, in danger of being killed by a 

 Persian soldier, exclaimed aloud, "Av^pwTre, fiy) Krave KpoTo-ov 

 — Oh man ! do not kill Croesus. This was the first time he had 

 ever articulated, but he retained the faculty of speech from 

 this event as long as he lived. Herodotus is universally ad- 

 mitted to be a trustworthy historian ; but if it be thought far- 



* For a more complete answer to this question, the author refers to his 

 published work "On Aphasia," page 173. 

 VOL. VII. H 



