Evening star., 1881-12-28
LARGE BRAINS AND SMALL.


HArrERs WHO HOLD THAT IT HAs-GRAvEYaRl
| TESTIMONY TO pIsPRovE rHIs-sKULLs sEvEl
| CENTURIES OLD SMALLER THAN MoDER,
ONES.
| From the Edinburgh Scotsman.
The brain is universally recognized as tn,
organ Of mind, and the size of this organ is yer,
| generally taken as an index of mental capacity
| Big brains have come to be suggestive of greai
minds. wnIie il is an undoubted fact that the pos
| session of a brain which falls below a certain
minimum standard ofweight implies idiocy or the
part OF Its unfortunate poSSeSsor. NJ Broca places
the lowest limit of brain-weight compatible
with human intelligence at 81 ounces In males
and 81 In females. the average brain-weight oi
Europeans being about 40 ounces. Whether the
possession of more than the average quantity OF
brain implies the presence OF more than aver
age intelligence is question that has given
rise to much discussion II is an undoubted
fact that very high brain-weirhtS
are occasionally found in people whose
mental requirements are certainly not above the
average Out of 151 brain-weights of adult
Scotsmen DR.. Peacock found that four. a., be
| longing TO artisans. who. so far as could be
learned. had not been distinguished among
their fellows by superior intellectual endop-
ment, weighed over 6oounces each while the
heaviest brain on recorJ-it weighed 81 ounces
belonged to a bricklayer DR. Morris who
chronicled the case. was told that the man had
good memory and was fond of politics but
that he could neither read nor write" What
ever his potentialites might have been lit is
evident, says DIR. Morris. THAT his actual ac-
quirements were not great" The non-dryel-
opment of superior mental power in such cases
may. however. be attributable not to lack of
capacity for learning. but TO the absence of the
conditions necessary to its growth. Certain it
is, that among the educated and intelligent
classes the number of bic brains is greater than
VA N tod .,,r..
Among the latter the proportion of brain
weights above 55 ounces has been aScertaned
to be only from to per cent. while the pro-
portion among men who have been distn-
gulshed for great intellectual requirements is
at least % per cent.
The brain-weights of only % such men are ac-
curately known. and it is from these that the
above proportion has been obtained. With Jew
exceptions, these were all above the average ca
pacty of 49 ounces First i'm this respect comes
the celebrated naturalist Cuvier. with BRAIN
weight of Ga ounces. followed by the famous
Scottish physician, Abercromby, and the poet
Schiller, each with 63 Goodsir. the anatomist
follows at considerable distance with 5156.
Sir James Simpson with "a. and Chalmers with
53. That such men as Gladstone Bright &c.
possess more than the average brain-weignt
may be inferred from statement lately made
public of the size of hat worn by these and
number of living or recently deceased states
men and literateurs Promising that what is
erage head, with presumably 40 ounces of
brain. and that ~ is a size SO large as only to
be made when specially ordered it appears that
out of IA persons whose hat sizes are given 2
Lord Chelmsford and Dean Stanley were below
while other Lord Beaconsfeld and the Prince
OF "ales) We're exactly up to the average. OF
the others, Dickens. Selborne and Bright re-
quired rs; Earl Russell, II; Lord MacauIey.
Gladstone, and Thackery. rs; Louis Philippe,
~ and the Archbishop Of York, fall OF the
"a lSf nom ShsI OH
actual brain-weight are known. four. including
the late Prof. Hughes Bennett, and Herman the
phlolOgist, are distinctly below the average.
showing, as Dr. Bastain points out in recent
work, that "a well-cOnstituted brain of small
dimensions may be capable OF doing much bet
ter work than many larger organ whose inter-
nal constitution is from one cause or other de-
fective-" When there is no such defect how
ever the big brain. there is every reason to be-
lieve, cOnfers an undoubted advantage on its
OwEer.
Such being the case. it is not surprising that
the assertion recently made that sensible
diminutiOn had taken place of late years in the
size OF the heads of the male population of those
Islands. and, consequently of the brains-for in
health the brain always fill the skuIl-should
have attracted attention. The data upon which !
this startling statement is founded have been /
supplied by the most persistent. if not the most /
scientific. class of head-measurers-the hatters. !
whose evidence on the point is of the most cir |
cumstantiai kind. One merchant of large eX- |
perence states tnat Of the six sizes of hats be-
ginning at II inches and increasing by one-half
inch to 23la inches. he was in the nabt 81 years
ago, OF buying for his retail trade in the follow
ing ratio. beginning at II inches, viz, 0. l. 2 T.
). L. while at the present time he is selling hats
in the following ratio. viz. 3. 4. 8. /. l. O. In ,
other words where only one hat was required I
30 years ago, at or under 2lI5 inches. /.
he now requires seven: and where formerly /
four of the two largest sizes were required !
no Epf,,,, Bot
ters which have appeared in Nature |
the experience in this instance would appear /
to be that of the trade generally. One manu-
facturer writes: Il should say that heads GEN !
orally are two sizes less than at the time so to |
40 years ago. you refer TO: a head of more than .
"A inches circumference is now quite rarity ,
While we make thousands Of hats for heads with .
a circumference of about q inches" The de- |
crease, according to another manufacturer is (
SO general that we do not make big-sized hats /
Tor STOCK, but only as ordered. and very few /
then" That similar diminuton has taken /
place in Scotland is the experience of one of the
principal hatters in Glasgow
There can be no reasonable doubt therefore |
that our hats are, on the whole, smaller than
they were generation ago. Do smaller hats |
however, in this case imply diminished
heads! 1t has been pointed out that the un-
doubted diminution is probably to be explained |
by areference to change of fasion i'm the mode of |
wearing both hat and hair. Thirty years !
time show, to wear the hat drawn we'll |
down over the head-how far over NAV be /
judged from the fact that it was customary, in |
England at least. to attach piece of cloth to !
the under side of the brim at the back in order
to take the friction off the coat collar On the |
other hand, the hair was worn thick and long. |
the present style Of clOse-cropped hair being i'm |
those days associated with soldiers and prison. |
ers. These two causes together seem fairly ade- |
quate to explain such decrease i'm the size of |
hats as has been noticed. If inadequate. as GER
tain correspondents in Nature maintain the |
only alternative is to believe that i'm the course |
of little more than quarter of century the |
heads and consequently the brains of our male |
population have sensibly diminished. That this |
is in the last degree improbable will be the
opinion of every student of recent anthropolOg
ica science.
In progressive civilization, such prevails |
in this country, and throughout the greater |
part of Europe and America, there is reason to |
believe that the cranial capacity Of the popula-
tOn is, on the whole. increasing rather than |
Owing to the want of early OBJ
servation it is difficult to institute comparisons
between past and present. An opportunity. |
however. lately occurred in Paris, which was |
taken advantage Of 10y Mr.. BrOca. In digging
the foundation of new building. vault was |
opened containing large number of human |
SIX keletOnS whose SURROUNDINGS nrOypd them tn |