Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1888-09-28
GEOGRAPHY OF INTELLECT.
Brain Growth Seems to Depend Upon
Land Surface and Climate.

brain Growth Seems to Depend Upon
Land Surface and Climate.
DIR. A. Conan Doyle has contributed an
article entitled 1.-THE Geological Distribu-
ton of British Intellect" to The Nine
tenth Century. He takes the names
given in a popular biographical diction-
airy and in a book entitled 'Men Of the
Time, " gives the birthplace of each and
then adds up the number that belong to
each Of the grand divisions of the United
Kingdom, to each country and to each
Of the large cities. He finds that the
proportion of celebrities to the entire
population Of the four main divisions Is
as follows: Scotland, one in 20, 900; Eng
land, n In 80, 900; Ireland, one in 49,
900; Wales, one in So, 900. London has
q celebrity for every 10, 900 inhabitants,
Dublin one in each s, 500 and Edinburgh
one In 9, 1900.
An attempt is made to show that the
development of intellect depends largely
on the geological formation of a country,
climatic conditions, and other outward
circumstances. A pretty good showing
Is made for the truth Of the statement
that ''the very highest intellects appear
TO be developed in the peaceful atmos-
phere Of country villages and the small
provincial towns" and for another state
ment that Emusic, poetry and art reach
their highest development in the south,
while theology, science and engineering
predominant in higher ATTITUDES" OBJ
s%ervation shows that the latter statement
is true of Europe as a whole. Music,
poetry and art have fourished In Italy,
while theology, science and engineering
have predominated in Scotland, northern
Germany and the Scandinavian countries.
An American geography of intellect
would show that nearly all our dis
tinguished thinkers, authors and scholars
were born within sight of the White
mountains and within a distance of 100
miles of the Atlantic coast Nearly all
our poetry has been written within this
territory. Half of our noted wits and
humorists We're born in Maine. The lit
tie town Of Concord, Mass, has produced
more men of the highest order Of intel
lect than all the southwestern states.
The south has produced several dis
tinguished orators and soldiers, but no
great poet, painter or novelist The
pra1ries have yet to show what they
are capable of doing in the matter Of
producing great men.
The topography of a country and its
climatic conditions appear t. exercise a
great influence in the development of in
tellect- South America and the West
India islands have produced very few
persons who have gained celebrity in any
line of human greatness. Africa is far
behind South America in this matter.
The southern hemisphere is apparently
deficient in the conditions requisite for
high intellectual development.
Perhaps a popular biographical diction-
airy is not the best work to use In prepar-
ing a geography of intellect. A man
may gain celebrity without being intel
lectually great. Most of u compound
ers of patent medicines, pugilists, jock
eys, circus riders, and accidentally rich
men have gained celebrity, but it is of a
kind that no man of intellect would care
to attain. Many profound scholars and
careful investigators never become ia
nous enough to get their names in a pop
ular biographical dictionary, but their IN
tellectual work Is written in the progress
of society.-Chicago Times.