89 
The object of my paper to-night has been to test Darwinism 
by recent researches in reference to the 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 Gentve" 
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 ? * 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 ? 
We 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, ” AvOpojwz, pri /crave KpoTeov 
— 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 
