The Destiny of Man, Viewed in the Light of His OriginFiske, John
Religion
The Destiny of Man, Viewed in the Light of His Origin
Fiske, John
Human beings; Immortality
that affords the physical condition for the manifestation of
consciousness. Memory, emotion, reason, and volition begin with this
retention of a surplus of molecular motion in the highest centres. As we
survey the vertebrate sub-kingdom of animals, we find that as this
surplus increases, the surface of the highest centres increases in area.
In the lowest vertebrate animal, the amphioxus, the cerebrum and
cerebellum do not exist at all. In fishes we begin to find them, but
they are much smaller than the optic lobes. In such a highly organized
fish as the halibut, which weighs about as much as an average-sized man,
the cerebrum is smaller than a melon-seed. Continuing to grow by adding
concentric layers at the surface, the cerebrum and cerebellum become
much larger in birds and lower mammals, gradually covering up the optic
lobes. As we pass to higher mammalian forms, the growth of the cerebrum
becomes most conspicuous, until it extends backwards so far as to cover
up the cerebellum, whose functions are limited to the conscious
adjustment of muscular movements. In the higher apes the cerebrum begins
to extend itself forwards, and this goes on in the human race. The
cranial capacity of the European exceeds that of the Australian by forty
cubic inches, or nearly four times as much as that by which the
Australian exceeds the gorilla; and the expansion is almost entirely in
the upper and anterior portions. But the increase of the cerebral
surface is shown not only in the general size of the organ, but to a
still greater extent in the irregular creasing and furrowing of the
surface. This creasing and furrowing begins to occur in the higher
mammals, and in civilized man it is carried to an astonishing extent.
The amount of intelligence is correlated with the number, the depth, and
the irregularity of the furrows. A cat's brain has a few symmetrical
creases. In an ape the creases are deepened into slight furrows, and
they run irregularly, somewhat like the lines in the palm of your hand.
With age and experience the furrows grow deeper and more sinuous, and
new ones appear; and in man these phenomena come to have great
significance. The cerebral surface of a human infant is like that of an
ape. In an adult savage, or in a European peasant, the furrowing is
somewhat marked and complicated. In the brain of a great scholar, the
furrows are very deep and crooked, and hundreds of creases appear which
are not found at all in the brains of ordinary men. In other words, the
cerebral surface of such a man, the seat of conscious mental life, has
become enormously enlarged in area; and we must further observe that it
goes on enlarging in some cases into extreme old age.[6]
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