The Relation of Science and Religion.pdf - Online Christian Library

HIGHER ORGANISMS. 219view as we ascend the scale of animal life.The main features of gradation may be shortlystated. In all cases, the brain is a soft pulpybody, composed as described, the exterior portionbeing cellular tissue, the interior fibrous,from the gathering of nerve lines. In thelowest orders of animals, the brain is of verysmall size. In the insects, such as the ant,bee, and wasp, it is only a slight band stretchingfrom eye to eye. In the whole order of$shes an advance in organization appears,though the brain is small relatively to the sizeof the body, a fact which seems readily explainedby the fact that there is little articulationin the structure of the fish, the wholebody moving in one mass, by simple managementof the fins and tail. The brain as a ruleis simply two small round lobes of smooth surfacelaid together; and what is most to be remarkedis that the brain proper is quite inferiorin size to lobes of vision.* In front ofthe brain are slight strands connected withthe organ of smell; and behind it are the twolarge lobes known as optic lobes, before which* Unless references are otherwise given, illustration of thestructure of brain here referred to, will be founa in my work,The Relations of ,Ili?zcl and Bmia, from p. 125, onwards.