Evolution and the Darwinian theory of human descent viewed from the standpoint of a multiple primate ancestry by Charles K. Mills : papers and discussion of the paper by Dr. Mills / Dr. Francis X. Dercum, Dr. William B. Cadwalader, Dr. J. Hendrie Lloyd and Dr. J. Parsons Schaeffer.

  • Mills, Charles K. (Charles Karsner), 1845-1931
Date:
[1928]
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Licence: In copyright

Credit: Evolution and the Darwinian theory of human descent viewed from the standpoint of a multiple primate ancestry by Charles K. Mills : papers and discussion of the paper by Dr. Mills / Dr. Francis X. Dercum, Dr. William B. Cadwalader, Dr. J. Hendrie Lloyd and Dr. J. Parsons Schaeffer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of monkeys and anthropoids, and realizing that his studies outranked in importance those which I was making I readily consented to his having all of the brain material. In this attitude Dr. Henry C. Chapman generously concurred. During my last year at the university, Prof. F. Gurney Smith, professor of physiology, died, and Dr. Chapman was requested to complete the course, which he did brilliantly. It so happened that at that time a group of clinical teachers, headed by Dr. William Pepper and H. C. Wood, were clamoring for revolutionary changes in the faculty, and as the changes threatened — or seemed to threaten — the security of such didactic teachers as Dr. Leidy, Dr. Chapman threw himself into the breach and opposed vigorously changes which seemed to him to be too radical in their nature; as a result, he was not elected to the professorship of physiology. About this time, however, the professor of physiology of the Jefferson Medical College, Dr. James Aitken Meigs, died and Dr. Chapman was triumphantly elected to succeed him. That Dr. Chapman taught most efficiently for many years at the Jefferson College is a matter of history. The fact that I was myself called to the Jefferson years later to join him as a colleague in the Jefferson faculty was to me a source of great pride and joy. Dr. Parker’s studies won for him one of the graduation prizes. His paper was, however, not published for many years. After his death the manuscript fell into my hands and I at once made an effort to secure the necessary funds for the cost of the illustrations. In this I was generously aided by Dr. Mills, Dr. Osier and others. In due course it appeared among the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences. It formed a large volume with many plates. These events are now between 40 and SO years old. Dr. Mills, like Parker and myself, and because he was especially interested in cerebral localization, was thoroughly imbued with the importance of studies in the morphology of the cortex. Parker did not take any interest in clinical neurology, but he did take part in our discussions on cerebral morphology and at one time made a joint study with Dr. Mills of a Chinese brain. Dr. Mills made numerous morpho¬ logic studies. I studied and made reports on the morphology of the brains of imbeciles, idiots and epileptic persons, the brains of murderers, and I also described three Chinese brains. We early formed the conception of low type brains. We noted in such brains the frequency of unusual confluences of fissures, and we rightly attributed such confluences to failure of the cortical tissue in the given areas to develop to the general cortical level. Of course we noted relative simplicity of frontal, parietal and temporal development from time to time, but our attention after a time became especially directed to the relations between the parietal and occipital lobes. One of the features by which the anthropoid and simian brain generally is characterized is that the relationship between the occipital lobe and the great association areas of the parietal and temporal lobes is much less close than in man. A distinguished French anatomist, Gratiolet, had early called attention to certain convolutions of the human brain which intimately connect the occipital with the parietal lobe, and he called these convolutions folds of passage, plis de passage. Anomalies of the human brain, therefore, in this region came to be regarded by us as of special significance. The parieto-occipital fissure, for instance, in the normal white brain does not extend, except to a limited degree, on the lateral surface of the hemisphere. When it reaches the mesial edge of the hemisphere it is bounded by a well developed convolution which Gratiolet termed the plis de passage superieure externe. It does not extend on the lateral surface. In the simian brain it not only extends well on the lateral surface but serves as a distinct demarcation between the occipital and parietal lobes. When it was on the lateral surface of the hemisphere, we spoke of it as the external perpendicular fissure, while to the parieto-occipital fissure the name internal perpendicular fissure was applied. I regard the name external perpen- /