The master of destiny : A biography of the brain by Frederick Tilney
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"The master of destiny" by Frederick Tilney is a scientific publication written in the early 20th century. Framed as a “biography of the brain,” it surveys the brain’s evolutionary rise from the simplest life to modern humanity, explaining how neural development, senses, and the neocortex underpin civilization and urging education and reason as the means to guide our collective future. The opening of the book presents a forceful foreword calling scientists to
speak plainly to the public and to center the brain as the “master organ” whose training determines human progress or disaster. It then traces the brain’s origin: from single-celled organisms to colonial forms with division of labor, to sponges with primitive muscles, to nerve nets in hydra and the first centralization in jellyfish; onward to head formation in flatworms, sophisticated yet limited arthropod systems, and the decisive vertebrate line (fish to amphibians to reptiles to birds to mammals) culminating in the mammalian neocortex. Alongside a sweeping geologic backdrop, it marshals evidence for evolution from comparative anatomy, blood, embryology, and the senses, introducing the “sense combiner” concept and showing how hearing, sight, touch, smell, and body sense progressively centralize in the forebrain. At the start of the historical arc of humanity, it sketches early humans and their antiquity, profiles key fossils (Java ape-man, Piltdown, Heidelberg, Neanderthal), and outlines Paleolithic cultures and tools, highlighting the Mousterian shift to cave dwelling as a seed of property and social organization. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Tilney, Frederick, 1875-1938 |
|---|---|
| Author of introduction, etc. | Riggs, Austen Fox, 1876-1940 |
| LoC No. | 30003424 |
| Title | The master of destiny : A biography of the brain |
| Original Publication | New York: Doubleday, Doran and Company, 1930. |
| Credits | Sean (@parchmentglow), chenzw, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive) |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | QH: Science: Natural history |
| Subject | Evolution |
| Subject | Human beings -- Origin |
| Subject | Apes |
| Subject | Brain |
| Category | Text |
| eBook-No. | 78733 |
| Release Date | May 23, 2026 |
| Copyright | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 2003 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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