Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-01-31
CARE OF THE BRAIN.
A Chapter Upon This Important Member
by Bill Nye.


This article is designed more especially
for those vertebrates who are able to keep
and use their own brains. 1t is not in
tended for the perusal OF those who simply
have a ganglion or nerve-center which
they are using temporarily until they can
afford brain.
Man is more highly endowed with brain
than any other animal. Still, nearly all
animate 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 dmphiorus and dude.
The elephant has the heaviest brain of
any animal 1t often weighs as high as
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 vet woman is far superior
to man mentally. | have obtained this
information from a lady friend of mine
who is thoroughly trustworthy.
The brain is inclosed in a bony sphere
called the skull. This bony envelope is
air-ticht The brain does not have to be
aired if 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 eneaphalon, We are
told, are the cerebrUm cerebe{lum, meduid
oblongqta, pons yaroiii obligato and pianjssimo
ANY one would think that brain with all
these things in it would not feel well, 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 a
cineritious substance, cranial nerves, motor
oculi, corpus coliseum, corpora strata. hat,ai
| ht5ercuIa qltddrigemind, Stdccdta, Gr6Or uit@,
! croua cerebJ.i and other foreign substances,
which must have made life a burden; and
vet 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 our organs, and, therefore, we should
| use every precautiOn to retain 1t ;
for, like the self-cocking revolver, a man
may struggle along for years without having
! occasion TO use it, and yet, when he does
| want to use it, he wants ii 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 express 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
experience with the brain, never having
had Il case of it in their own families nor
studied its habits in other people, fire.
quentlv make an erroneous diagnosis where
a patient is suffering from brain trouble. |
once knew young doctor, who has since
resigned his lucrative practice in order to
accept a highly responsible position as
ohambernaid in large livery stable to
make a mistake of that kind. The patient
vas a 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 encourage 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 till he showed the
Jury that it was a case of quick coupling
pin on the brain. It seems that the patient
had been exposed at saloon on \ street,
and 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 a very sensi-
tive organ, and is easily affected by ex-
ternal influences. Very little, after all, is
known of the location of various phreno-
logical organs in the BRAIN The relation
between thought and the material organ
which we call the brain is little misty
yet. 1t is not for poor, short-lived and
puny man to know everything The brain,
however, is curious organ. 1t is good
thing in lis 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 information to those who do not
seek it. Another thing that we should re-
member is that the brain weighs about
twenty times as much as the tongue, and,
therefore, there is no physiological law
which will require US to tell all We know.
i lnsleside.