Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-06-04
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THE BRAIN.
BILL NYE EMITS SOME INTERESTING
IDEAS REGARDING OUR THOUGHT
M4NUF4 4CTURER.

IDEAS REGARDING OUR THOUGHT
MANUFACTURERS.
This article, writes Bill Nye to the San
Francisco ATyonah, is designed more espe-
cially for those vertebrates who are able to
keep and use their own brains. 1t is not
intended for the perusal of those who SIM
ply have ganglon or nerve-center which
they are using temporarily until they can
afford brain.
Man is more highly endowed with brain
innate creation has trace of this organ
decreasing, of course, in intensity down.
ward, from man to the lower mammals,
birds, reptiles, batrachia, and fishes, till
finally all traces Of the brain disappear in
the amphiOruS and dude.
The elephant has the heaviest brain Of
any animal. If often weighs as high ss
nine or ten pounds. The whale comes next,
with a brain that weighs, perhaps, five
pounds. So, great mental strength is the
result of quality more than quantity in the
matter of brain tissue.
The brain of an adult man weighs on an
average, forty-eight ounces, while that of
the average adult woman weighs forty-four
ounces, and yet woman is far superior to
man mentally. I have obtained this in
formation from lady friend of mine who
is thoroughly trustworthy.
The brain is enclosed in a bOny sphere
called the skull. This bony envelope is air
tight The brain does not have to be aired,
it is in normal condition. 1t should be
kept inside the skull constantly, and in as
compact form as possible, for when it is
otherwise great inconvenience may ensue.
The parts of the encaphalon, we are told,
are the cere6runa, cerre6elllna, naetlatlla, ob-
lonqata, pons udrolii, obligato, pianissi,aO.
Anyone would think that brain with all
these things in it.Would not feel we'll, but
such is not the case. The brain has been
found, upon microscopic investigation after
death, to contain not only the foreign mi
crobes and things named above, but also
cineritious substance, carnal nerves, motor
oculi, corpus colosseum, corpora striGta, thdt-
vitte, crura, cerebri, and other foreign sub
stances, which must have made lifea burden,
and yet death did not result for many years.
Nothing, however, is so destructive to
brain tissue as daylight. Many have died
almost instantly after light and fresh air
were freely admitted into the brain. The
brain is one of the most useful of all organs,
and therefore, we should use every pre-
caution to retain it; for, like the self-cock-
ing revolver, man may struggle along for
years without having occasion to use it,
anu ycG WIeu le uOcS WduC w uoo ~ hO
wants it very much. We might get along
in society for long time without being
called upon for any mental demonstration,
but some day, without any notice whatever,
we might be requested by our host to eX-
press an idea, and we would feel very much
cut up to admit that we had left our thinker
at home on the piano.
Physicians who have never had much eX
perience with the brain, never having a
case of it in their own families nor studied
it's habits in other people, frequently make
an erroneous diagnosis where patient is
suffering from brain trouble. once knew
a young doctor, who has since resigned his
lucrative practice in order to accept high
ly responsible position as chambermaid in
a livery stable, to make q mistake of that
kind. The patient was German, who was
unconscious at the time the doctor was
called. The latter felt the pulse, examined
the tongue, wrote out three prescriptions on
different drug stores for medicine to en-
courage zeal on the part of the liver, and
went away.
The coroner was no expert in cases of that
kind, but he went at it on the theory that
the brain had been affected, and traced up
the symptoms until he showed the jury
that it was a case of quick coupling-pin on
the brain. 1t seems that the patient had
this was followed in quick succession by
coma, semi-cOlon, and full stop.
We should take great care of our brain
if we intend to use it. 1t is very sensi-
tive organ, and is easily affected by eXter-
nal influences. Very little, after all, is
known of the location of various phrenolog-
ical organs in the brain. The relation be-
tween thought and the material organ
which we call the brain is little misty
yet. 1t is not for the poor, short-lived, and
puny man to know everything. The brain,
however, is a curious organ. 1t is good
thing in its place, but entirely useless when
removed from the party to whom it belongs.
We should not overWork the brain, or
strain it in trying to think of hard words
that no one else knows the meaning OF.
Neither should we try to preserve our brains
in alcohol during Office hours. Alcohol and
gray matter are always antagonistic. Let
US take good care of our brains and not
wear them out trying to impart informa-
tion to those who do not seek it. Another
thing that we should remember is that the
brain weighs about twenty times as much
as the tongue, and therefore, there is no
physiological law which requires us to tell
all we know.