FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>  
a strictly accurate account of what was known when it was made; and it does not appear to me to be more than apparently weakened by the subsequent discovery of the relatively small development of the posterior lobes in the Siamang and in the Howling monkey. Notwithstanding the exceptional brevity of the posterior lobes in these two species, no one will pretend that their brains, in the slightest degree, approach those of the Lemurs. And if, instead of putting Hapale out of its natural place, as Professor Bischoff most unaccountably does, we write the series of animals he has chosen to mention as follows: Homo, Pithecus, Troglodytes, Hylobates, Semnopithecus, Cynocephalus, Cercopithecus, Macacus, Cebus, Callithrix, Hapale, Lemur, Stenops, I venture to reaffirm that the great break in this series lies between Hapale and Lemur, and that this break is considerably greater than that between any other two terms of that series. Professor Bischoff ignores the fact that long before he wrote, Gratiolet had suggested the separation of the Lemurs from the other Primates on the very ground of the difference in their cerebral characters; and that Professor Flower had made the following observations in the course of his description of the brain of the Javan Loris: (75. 'Transactions of the Zoological Society,' vol. v. 1862.) "And it is especially remarkable that, in the development of the posterior lobes, there is no approximation to the Lemurine, short hemisphered brain, in those monkeys which are commonly supposed to approach this family in other respects, viz. the lower members of the Platyrrhine group." So far as the structure of the adult brain is concerned, then, the very considerable additions to our knowledge, which have been made by the researches of so many investigators, during the past ten years, fully justify the statement which I made in 1863. But it has been said, that, admitting the similarity between the adult brains of man and apes, they are nevertheless, in reality, widely different, because they exhibit fundamental differences in the mode of their development. No one would be more ready than I to admit the force of this argument, if such fundamental differences of development really exist. But I deny that they do exist. On the contrary, there is a fundamental agreement in the development of the brain in men and apes. Gratiolet originated the statement that there is a fundamental difference in the de
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16   17   18   >>  



Top keywords:

development

 

fundamental

 

posterior

 

series

 

Professor

 
Hapale
 

Lemurs

 

brains

 

approach

 

statement


Bischoff
 

Gratiolet

 

differences

 

difference

 

structure

 

contrary

 

agreement

 
Platyrrhine
 

members

 

hemisphered


remarkable

 

Zoological

 

Society

 

approximation

 

Lemurine

 

commonly

 
supposed
 
family
 

originated

 
monkeys

concerned

 

respects

 

investigators

 
reality
 

widely

 

admitting

 

similarity

 

exhibit

 
argument
 

Transactions


researches

 

knowledge

 

considerable

 

additions

 

justify

 

degree

 
putting
 
slightest
 

pretend

 

species