58 
THE DESCENT OF MAN. 
Part I. 
ing . 37 Nevertheless a long succession of vivid and con- 
nected ideas, may pass through the mind without the 
aid of any form of language, as we may infer from the 
prolonged dreams of dogs. We have, also, seen that 
retriever-dogs are able to reason to a certain extent; 
and this they manifestly do without the aid of language. 
The intimate connection between the brain, as it is 
now developed in us, and the faculty of speech, is well 
shewn by those curious cases of brain-disease, in which 
speech is specially affected, as when the power to re- 
member substantives is lost, whilst other words can be 
correctly used . 38 There is no more improbability in 
the effects of the continued use of the vocal and mental 
organs being inherited, than in the case of hand- 
writing, which depends partly on the structure of the 
hand and partly on the disposition of the mind ; and 
hand-writing is certainly inherited . 39 
Why the organs now used for speech should have 
been originally perfected for this purpose, rather than 
any other organs, it is not difficult to see. Ants have 
considerable powers of intercommunication by means 
of their antennae, as shewn by Huber, who devotes a 
wdioie chapter to their language. We might have used 
our fingers as efficient instruments, for a person with 
practice can report to a deaf man every word of a speech 
rapidly delivered at a public meeting ; but the loss of 
our hands, whilst thus employed, would have been 
a serious inconvenience. As all the higher mammals 
possess vocal organs constructed on the same general 
37 See remarks on this head by Dr. Maudsley, 4 The Physiology 
and Pathology of Mind/ 2nd edit. 1868, p. 199. 
38 Many curious cases have been recorded. See, for instance, 
4 Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers/ by Dr. Abercrombie, 
1838, p. 150. 
39 4 The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication/ vol. 
ii. p. 6. 
