The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-04-18
THE BRAIN AND THE MEMORY.
1t Is Assumed That Every Thought
is a Separate Ledger in the Brain.

What is the brain like in its capacity
of storehouse, and what should we see
if we could reduce our stature to in
finitesimal proportions and travel
along the corridors of the brain? Does
it contain galleries of pictures? Is it
furnished with shelves and pigeon
holes for the classification and care of
records and messages? It is impossi-
bic to conceive what kind of apparatus
or fittings can at once be suitable for
storing up pictures and sounds and all
the varieties of impressions received
from all the senses. Nor can we dis
cover any curious machinery, even
with the microscope, for the structure
Of the gray matter is so minute as to
defy the powers of the lens, and all
that we can detect is an agglomeration
of minute cells.
A calculation has been made regard
ing the number of these brain cells. 1t
is assumed that every thought or per-
cepuon is a separate lodger in the
mind, requiring an apartment of the
brain to itself; and the cells are the
apartments. We have to provide ac-
commodation for all the incidents of
our everyday life, for all we read in
the daily papers. for all that our
schoolmasters crammed into US, and
all that we have learned since How
is this possible in one small skull
Our conception is assisted by photog-
raphy, which can print the Lord S
Prayer so small that it requires a
powerful microscope to read it. Surely,
then, minute portions of the brain
may contain a great deal? The cells
vary in size from 1-300th of an inch in
diameter to 1-3.000th; and this being
known, it is not difficult to estimate
the entire number of them in the
brain. DR.. Hooke, the mathematician.
said 3.155, 100000; but, according to
Maynert's calculation. the number of
cerebral cells is only 500 900. 900.
Seeing that the doctors differ, let us
use the slate and pencil ourselves The
thinking power of the brain is be-
lieved to reside in the gray matter on
the surface. This is a sheet of cellular
nerve substance, which is crumpled
into convoluticns through being con-
fined within the narrow limits of the
skull. If it were spread out fat. it
would be found equal to a layer one
inch in thickness, and twelve inches
long by eleven inches broader slight
iy more-giying a total of 134 cubic
inches. If all the cells We're one
three-hundredth of an inch in diane
ter, there would be room for $1,000, 900
| of them in one cubic inch, and there
fore for 3,61S 100000 in the whole: but
since many of the cells are smaller.
the total number must be greater Let
us, however, be content with the 3,61S.-
100000. What is a million? The Bible.
Old and New Testament together, is
said to contain about $3.50. 600 of let
tiers; we should, therefore, have to pile
up lib copies of the Scriptures to get
a heap containing as many letters as
the brain contains cells. As each cell
may accommodate on idea or thought.
probably even a smaller storehouse
would suffice for the wants of the av-
erage human creature. On the other
hand, when great thinkers require
more accommodation. they may, per-
haps. be able to- grow more brain
cells; and Webster did tell a great
American scholar that he had to
change the size of his hat every few
years.-New York Weekly.