169r

on their language, & they use their antennae antenna for this purpose

We might have thus used our fingers as most efficient instrument, for a person with some practise some practice can report to a deaf man every word of a speech as it is rapidly delivered at a public meeting; but the loss of our hands whilst thus employed, would have been a serious inconvenience. As all the [word excised] mammals mammals possess possess visual organs [words excised] on – same plan with

[Descent, pp. 58-9: "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 remember 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 antennæ, as shewn by Huber, who devotes a whole 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, 'The Physiology and Pathology of Mind,' 2nd edit. 1868, p. 199.

38 Many curious cases have been recorded. See, for instance, 'Inquiries Concerning the Intellectual Powers,' by Dr. Abercrombie, 1838, p. 150.

39 'The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. ii. p. 6. [p. 59:] plan with ours, and which are used as a means of communication, it was obviously probable, if the power of communication had to be improved, that these same organs would have been still further developed; and this has been effected by the aid of adjoining and well-adapted parts, namely the tongue and lips."]