The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1895-03-14
BRAIN MEASUREMENT.
The Size of the Brain Cuts No
Figure.
QUALITY, NOT QUANTITY, NEEDED.
Expression of Opinion which Prevails
Among the Majority of Even Well
Educated People.
.ITY, NOT QUANTITY, NEEDED.

The head of male infant at birth
is twelve inches in circumference, or
nearly; at three months it is fourteen
inches; at six months fifteen inches;
at twelve months seventeen inches
The increase is very gradual up to four
and five years. At six years it is about
nineteen inches; at twelve twenty
inches. From this period it increases
slowly, till at fifteen or sixteen it
reaches twenty-one inches. At full
manhood-say, twenty-one years. 1T
inches, or at the most twentyfour.
Very seldom indeed is the head known
to grow to twenty five inches, and then
it becomes defective in coronal height.
Twenty six inches in circumference
is sure to be associated with disease of
the brain, aggravated as it exceeds this.
Cases have been seen in which the
brain was thirty-two to thirty four
inches round. but in each case idiocy
and hydrocephaly existed. The width
of the adult male head from side to
side. just over the ears, varies little
from six inches. In height, from the
opening of the ear, the head should be
the same as its width. Low moral
heads are deficient from quarter of an
inch to an inch in coronal elevation.
The proper height from the opening
of the ear to the vertical point at top,
in properly developed heads. is the
same as the width. In length the head
should exceed its width by one-third.
If the head be six inches wide it should
be eight inches long from ''Individual-
ity" to "Philoprogenitiveness."
1t is not easy to convey in words an
idea of form. The brain is sphere,
compressed at the sides SO as to pro-
duce greater length than width Or
height. 1t should have no absolutely
fat parts, but should preserve curve
all through. Viewed from the front,
the head denuded of hair should present
Saxon arch, or rather a series of
arches as it advances. to the forehead.
Nature has meaning in her forms. Is
there not certain form allotted to
every organ, external and internal, of
the body, and is the organ of the
mind to be exempt from this law?
In referring to children and the de-
velopment of the brain, Mr.. Donovan
says:-"The child born in civilized
land is not likely as such to be supe-
rior to one born among barbarians, and
the difference which ensues between
the acts of the two children will be
caused, as far as we know, solely by
the pressure of external circumstances,
by which l mean the surrounding
opinions. knowledge, associations
in a word, the entire mental atmos-
phere in which the two children are
espectively nurtured"
We have here the clear expression of
an opinion which still prevails among
the majority of even well educated
people in this country. Only now it
is beginning to be acknowledged tina t,
the brain is exclusively the mental Or
gan, and that, like all organs, it is
subjected to laws of size and form, and
that these laws, or rather the manner
in which they prevail, are measures OF
mental power. But in defiance of this
now recognized truth people still be-
lieve in the schoolmaster, and the pro-
fessions are crowded with miserably in
competent men, to their own great in
jury and the injury of society.
} The form of the head, as a complex
organ, must ever depend on the manner
in which its organs are developed.
If the organs at the base of the brair
be large, out of proportion to the
coronal and the anterior organs, the
head will be wide and low, and will
belong to the physical labour type. L
! the growth of the brain determine to
the top and the front. we get thu
moral dispositions, and the scientific
proclivities so necessary in the higher
pursuits of ife.-Family Doctor.
! Mrs. Kaddy (scornfully)-I wouldn'