North Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1850-1852, 1851-08-20
From the Philadelphia American and Gazette
THE HUMAN BRAIN

The question whether the intellectual faculties
have any dependence upon or bear any proportion to-
the relative weight and magnitude of the brain is
one that has long engaged the attention of phioso
pliers, without, however, having been In any degree
satisfactorily decided. The notion of such depen-
dence and such relation, however, Is an extremely
common-and therefore, doubtless very natural one
it is proverbal to say of of great mind that he
has a big head, and of weak man that he has a
small one and when we hear of the brain of such
savant as the celebrated Culver having been found to
weigh some half pound more than the average of
ordinary brains, and remember how diminutive those
Of idiots often we feel almost that the point Is
settled and the theory established law of nature.
General observations however, are not so favorable
the hypothesis isolated ones; and the further
the scrutiny is carried, and the more exactly the ex-
permens performed, the greater appears to be the
difficulty of ascertaining any precise rule the sub
ect. This, it to us, is shown very clearly by
the researches of our distinguished townsman, DR..
S. G. Morton, who has taken the lead of all physio-
logists in the practical study of the human skull,
particularly in regard to its capacity, and has, by his
numerous publications, added vastly to the sum of
our know LEDGE and obtained worldwide reputation
which never better deserved because never more
laboriously earned.
The last tables published by DR.. Morton present
results which are highly interesting, although some
of them in opposition both to preconcelved opin-
ions and to the supposed rule of relation. Thus the
general fact is that there is difference in the
size of the brains of the different of men, the
cultivated having larger brains than the
uncultivated. The Caucasian family, for example,
have brains averaging capacity of 90 cubic inches
while those of the Hotentots and Aforans only av-
erage IS. The Chinese have average of sc /; the
aboriginal Americans 10. But in opposition to all
this we have the equally general, and somewhat in
comprehensive fact that the barbarous races now in
existence have larger brains than the civilized nations
of the early ages. This is far true that the semi
savage Arabs of the desert boast brains of 80
cubic inches while the old Egyptians, the builders
of the pyramids, had brains of but 80 inches; and
cur wandering red men of North America, including
the " Dggers,'' g Poor Devs,'' or Shoshonees,
Al .IlaI Sc
rise average of 81 inches, while the ancient Peru
VANS and Mexicans, who semi-civilized, DWELL
ing in cities and worshipping in temples, had IS and
10 inches.
There are other facts, which appear from these ia
bles, of equally curious character. DR.. Morton
divides the modern Caucasian group into six fami-
lies, of which the first in order, in brain, is she
Teutonc family, represented in his lists by Germans,
English, and Anglo-Americans. OF these the first
and last named up to 80 cubic inches, while the
English exceed both by no less than two cubic inch
es. Cousin John will, perhaps exult at his fanced
superiority and Jonathan may stare and feel indig-
nant. Neither however, should be iPitate There
is another and still more anomalous fact exhibited
in these tables, which will suggest equanimity and
caution; which is that the native Africans savages
though they be, have a similar excess of one cubic
inch Of brain their civilized descendants in the
United States, the former standing at an average of
80, the other only Of 80 cubic inches.
These are facts wholly irreconcila5le with the idea
of the intellectual powers being proporticned to the
mass of the brain. We have every reason to know
that neither the English the African has de-
generated in any way, physically or Intellectually, in
the new world.
The experiments of Dr. Morton directed to as
certain the cubic contents of the brain. The older
Psychologists attended its weight, and they con-
structed tables, though very imperfect ones, showing
the average-or supposed average-weight of the
brain, compared with the rest of the body and
this in the lower animals, we'll as in man. Now
every knows that the relative weight of child's
brain is greater than that of adult; and this is an
initial fact which, of course does not speak very IA
voraby for the theory. By table (aken chiefly from
work on Physiology, it appers that the brain of a
child at six years DID, equals I22d part of its body
that of an adult 1-35th part. Unluckily for human
dignity, although some of the monkey and baboon
tribe sink as low 1-1O4th part, others of that
have brains of l-22d, as large in proportion
as chlds. The game cock and dolphin tread |
and swim-cose the lord of creations heel, their
brains being l25th part the weight of their bodies
The little canary bird, however, beats man and mon
key, dolphin and game COCK its brain weighing only
II4th while he, in turn, retres in disgrace before
the insignificant humming-brd, whose brain expands
to the immensity of 1-llth of his whole weight-as
DR.. D. informs US, the authority of the late Pres
ident Madison. We find, from this table, that the
bat is respectable animal is the bear and the
hedgehog, the mole, the rabbit, the OK the sheep,
the donkey, the goose, and the dgned creature that
furnishes Virginia hams and lard oil for they all
come BEFORE having bigger brains in proportion than
the horse and elephant; both which. however, have
more intelligence than all the others put together
With these examples before US, shall cease to
wonder at-or, at all events lament-the degener-
alton of brains in North America,