New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-08-08

while not requiring much intelligence In gen
eral way for the transaction Of its business III
life The brains OF fish small and srhoo'h
lacking convolutons. However the houon , t,t
complex cOnvolutions necessarily indicate MS"
mental power was exploded some time aSo
The brain Of a whale is more elaborateiy con-
vouted than that Of a man. and the same 10
true of the porpoise and the elephant
Poor Mr. Frog who Is always getting chopped
up for scientific purposes. Is found 10 nave a
very inferior sort OF brain. HIS oniy ta,c"' -
for bug hunting. inasmuch as he feeus OH inset
almost exclusively. There does not seem 10 pe
much difference between his thnk-machine ana
that of n salamander.
As might be expected. the brains OF turtles
and snakes are unimpressive. The snakes oi W
day, as Professor Cope once said to writer are
poor and diminutive survivals from ancient
epochs when 1t was worth while to be a reptiie
But as Is proved by discovered fossils, tne
gigantic reptiles Of long ago had exceedingly
small brains in proportion to their size frop-
ably an Atantosaur lizard ninety feet long pos
sessed brain no bigger than that OF mouerh
cat These facts are ascertained by exaninlhs
the cavities Of the fossil skulls tweive-ioot
alligator of to-day has a brain only about the
size Of ones thumb
EVOLUTION OF THE LRAIN.
The brains of animals have been steadily grow,
ing ever since the first living creature appeared
on the earth. 1t is known that the mammals Vi
the tertiary epoch. not more than mliiion OF
so Of years ago, had brains very much smalier
than the mammals Of to-day. Some Of the
gigantic herbivores Of that age possessed brains
less in proportion to their size than those OF the
ancient reptiles. Science nowadays Is Interested
in tracing the history of the development OF
brain in animals by following the scale OF crea-
ton up from the bottom. disSecting ana com
pairing. Thus il is learned that the earliest form
Of brain must have been a mere nerve-cord. In
4 human being that nerve-cord. called the splnal
cord, has lump at one end of 1t termed a brain
The latter is merely an evolution of the former.
Professor Theodore Gill said To the writer that
among vertebrate animals the lamprey stands
almost at the very bottom in respect to the de-
velopment of its brain Next comes the shark,
which is VIGOROUSLY very stupid fish Above
the shark in point Of mind is the salamander.
and the next step is the alligator To ma
the step next above. you must go to Australia,
where dWeS the strange duck-billed Ornltho-
hynchus-a web-footed animal that lays eggs.
Superior in brain power to the ornithohynchus
is the opOssum. More intelligent than the opos-
sum is the rat and mere intelligent than the rat
is the hedgehog. Next is the lemur. followed by
the monkey. whose only superior is man. This
gives a rough notion OF the ascent Of the brain
from the bottom to the top Of the kingdom OF
the vertcbrates.
The biggest brain in existence is that Of the
elephant though not In proportion to the size
of the animal But the matter Of proportion
does not seem to be Of absolute Importance as an
index of mentality. There is a little South Amer
lean monkey which. though not particularly in
tclligcnt. has brain bigger than mans rela
lively to size. Birds have remarkably big brains.
Probably no feathered species has a larger brain
in proportion To It's size than the chickadee. The