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Show 116 the true proportion in which tho cerebrum covers tho cerebellum in tho highest Apes, reference should be made to the figure of tho undissccted brain of tho Chimpanzee in my ' Reade's Lecture on the Classification, &c. of tho Mammalia,' p. 25, fig. 7, Svo. 1859." It would not be credible, if it were not unfortunately true, that this fi~:;ure, to which tho trusting public is referred, without a word of qualification, "for tho true proportion in which the cerebrum covers the cerebellum in the highest Apes,'' is exactly that unacknowledged copy of Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik's figure whose utter inaccuracy had been pointed out years before by Gratiolet, and had been brought to Professor Owen's knowledge by myself in the passage of my article in the ' N aturul History Review' above quoted. I drew public attention to this circumstance again in my reply to Professor Owen, published in the' Athenroum' for April 13th, 1861; but the exploded figure was reproduced once more by Professor Owen, without the slightest allusion to its inaccuracy, in the 'Annals of Natural History' for June 1861 I This proved too much for the patience of the original authors of the figure, Messrs. Schroeder van der Kolk and Vrolik, who, in a note addressed to the Academy of Amsterdam, of which they were members, declared themselves to be, though decided opponents of all forms of the doctrine of progressiYo development, above all things, lovers of truth : and that, therefore, at whatever risk of seeming to lend support to views which they disliked, they felt it their duty to take the first opportunity of publicly repudiating Professor Owen's mis-use of their authority. In this note they frankly admitted the justice of the criticisms of M. Gratiolet> quoted above, and they illustrated, by new and careful figures, the posterior lobe, the posterior cornu, and the hippocampus min01: of the Orang. Furthermore, having demonstrated the parts, at one of the sittings of the Academy, they add, "la presence des parties contestces y a ete universellement reconnue par les anatomistes presents a la seance. Le soul doute qui soit rcste se rapporte au pes Hippocampi minor. . . . . A l'etat frais l'indice du petit pied d'Hippocampe etait plus prononce que maintenant/' Professor Owen repeated his erroneous assertions at the meeting of the British Association in 1861, and again, without any obvious necessity, and without auducing a single new fact or new argument, or being able in any way to meet 117 tho crushing evidence from original dissections of numol'OUS Apes' brains, which had in the meanwhile been brought forward· by Prof. Rolleston, • F.R.S., Mr. Marsha.ll,t F.R.S., Mr. Flower,t Mr. Turner§ and myself,ll reviveu the subject at the Cambridge meeting of the same body in 1862. Not content with the tolerably vigorous repudiation which these unprecedented proceedings met with in Section D, Professor Owen sanctioned the publication of a version of his own statements, accompanied by a strange misrepresentation of mine (as may be seen by comparison of the' Times' Report of tho discussion), in the' Medical Times' for October 11th, 1862. I subjoin the conclusion of my reply in the same journal for October 25th. " If this were a question of opinion, or a question of interpretation of parts or of terms,-wcre it even a question of observation in which tho testimony of my own senses alone was pitted against that of another person, I should adopt a very different tone in discussing this matter. I should, in all humility, admit the likelihood of having myself erred in judgment, failed in knowledge, or been blinded by prejudice. " But no one pretends now, that the controversy is one of terms or of opini0ns. Novel and devoid of authority as some of Professor Owen's proposed definitions may have been, they might be accepted without changing the great features of the case. Hence, though special investigations into these matters have been undertaken during the last two years by Dr. Allen Thomson, by Dr. Rolleston, by Mr. Marshall, and by Mr. Flower, all, as you are aware, anatomists of repute in this country, and by Professors Schroeder VanderKolk, and Vrolik (whom Professor Owen incautiously tried to press into his own service) on the Conti· nent, all these able and conscientious observers have with one accord testified to the accuracy of my statements, and to the utter baselessness of the assertions of * On the Affinities of the Brain of the Orang. Nat. Hist. Review, April, 1861. t On the Brain of a young Chimpanzee. Ibid. July, 1861. t On the Posterior lobes of the Cerebrum of the Quadrumana. Philosophical Transactions, 1862. § On the anatomical Relations of the Surfaces of the Tentorium to the Cerebrum and Cerebellum in Mnn and the lower Mammals. Proceedings of tho Royal Society of Edinburgh, March, 1862. II On the Brain of Ateles. Proceedings of Zoological Society, 1861, |
