Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles DarwinDarwin, Charles
Science
Darwinism stated by Darwin himself: Characteristic passages from the writings of Charles Darwin
Darwin, Charles
Evolution (Biology)
As the various mental faculties gradually developed themselves the
brain would almost certainly become larger. No one, I presume, doubts
that the large proportion which the size of man’s brain bears to his
body, compared to the same proportion in the gorilla or orang, is
closely connected with his higher mental powers. We meet with closely
analogous facts with insects, for in ants the cerebral ganglia are of
extraordinary dimensions, and in all the _Hymenoptera_ these ganglia
are many times larger than in the less intelligent orders, such as
beetles. On the other hand, no one supposes that the intellect of any
two animals or of any two men can be accurately gauged by the cubic
contents of their skulls. It is certain that there may be extraordinary
mental activity with an extremely small absolute mass of nervous
matter: thus the wonderfully diversified instincts, mental powers, and
affections of ants are notorious, yet their cerebral ganglia are not so
large as the quarter of a small pin’s head. Under this point of view,
the brain of an ant is one of the most marvelous atoms of matter in the
world, perhaps more so than the brain of a man.
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[Page 55.]
The gradually increasing weight of the brain and skull in man must
have influenced the development of the supporting spinal column, more
especially while he was becoming erect. As this change of position was
being brought about, the internal pressure of the brain will also have
influenced the form of the skull; for many facts show how easily the
skull is thus affected. Ethnologists believe that it is modified by the
kind of cradle in which infants sleep. Habitual spasms of the muscles
and a cicatrix from a severe burn have permanently modified the facial
bones. In young persons whose heads have become fixed either sideways
or backward, owing to disease, one of the two eyes has changed its
position, and the shape of the skull has been altered apparently by
the pressure of the brain in a new direction. I have shown that with
long-eared rabbits even so trifling a cause as the lopping forward of
one ear drags forward almost every bone of the skull on that side; so
that the bones on the opposite side no longer strictly correspond.
Lastly, if any animal were to increase or diminish much in general
size, without any change in its mental powers, or if the mental powers
were to be much increased or diminished, without any great change in
the size of the body, the shape of the skull would almost certainly be
altered. I infer this from my observations on domestic rabbits, some
kinds of which have become very much larger than the wild animal, while
others have retained nearly the same size, but in both cases the brain
has been much reduced relatively to the size of the body. Now, I was
at first much surprised on finding that in all these rabbits the skull
had become elongated or dolichocephalic; for instance, of two skulls
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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