Since language is
essentially a human attribute, we can only study the relation of the Brain
to Speech by observations on human beings who during life have suffered
from various speech defects, and then correlate these defects with the
anatomical changes found in the brain after death.
Between the vocal instrument of the primitive savage and that of the most
cultured singer or orator there is little or no discoverable difference;
neither by careful naked-eye inspection of the brain, nor aided by the
highest powers of the microscope, should we be able to discover any
sufficient structural difference to account for the great difference in the
powers of performance of the vocal instrument of the one as compared with
that of the other; nor is there any sufficient difference in size or minute
structure of the brain to account for the vast store of intellectual
experiences and knowledge of the one as compared with the other. The
cultured being descended from cultured beings inherits tendencies whereby
particular modes of motion or vibration which have been experienced by
ancestors are more readily aroused in the central nervous system; when
similar stimuli producing similar modes of motion affect the sense organs.
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