The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1897-05-09

Helen Gardener Dispels an Old
Time Erroneous I'm.
-: preston.
Weight, Size and Development Of the
Brain Do Not Differ in Man
and Woman.

Be Tall, swarthy and handsome Rabbi
.: Nieto introduced Helen Gardener to fair
audience last night in Golden Gate Hall;
fair in a double sense-it was fair in point
OF mum bers and lair in sex, there being
only ABOUT five men present, and one OF
them, occupying a front seat, burrowed
his bosom with his gray beard and snored
during the entire lecture.
It was Just like brute of man, and
he was old enough to know better.
Mrs. Gardeners subject was sex in
Brain" her purpose being to dissipate
The common impression that woman, in
tellectuaIly, is the inferior of man, and
that physicians have found, by means OF
the microscope and scales, that her brain
is lighter, less dense and less devei oped
than that of man. This i'm preston was
fostered By alleged statistics OF pseudo
scientists.
DR.. William A. Hammond had stated
IN the public prints that woman should
not be allowed to develop what brains she
= had because she possessed but little, and
even that little was Of inferior quality. He
Contended that the differences between
the brains of man and woman could be
discovered by the microscope and the
scales. Her brain was smaller, he said (;
that through fundamental organization
and naturally and potentially, exclusive
of environment, she was incapable of IN
biased Judgment and judicial fairness,
and that she was not capable OF great
work IN The domain OF literature.
He said also: at is only necessary to
compare the average male WIKI the aver
age female brain TO perceive at once the
vast difference between them. The male
brain is larger and the secondary assures
more numerous, while the specific gravity
Of both the white and gray matter is
greater in man than In woman"
Against these assertions of DR.. Ham
mond, made with the characteristic dog
nAtlsm OF the profession, Mrs. Gardener
cited the vast difference in weight be-
tween the brain OF Cromwell and Gam
BETA, the latter's being 800 grammes
lighter than Crom wells, and she clinch ed
the matter with the declaration that the
largest human brain on record is that OF
negro criminal idiot.
The speakerquoted sninstance in which
II was found that the brain of an unedu-
Gated housewife weighed a little more
than that OF DAME! Webster.
Dr.. L. c. SpltZger. the greatest authority
IN the medical world on the brain, wrote
letter to the lecturer, IN which he said
that she might hold him responsible for
the declaration that any statement to the
.eI1ectthat an observer can tell by looking
at the brain or by examining it micro
scopically the sex of the person to whom
Il belonged is not founded upon any
~scientitic assumption. He denounced the
:~sra tement as false that the microscope
shows different characteristics in the male
and female brain. No differences had
been found. Numerous female brains
exCee ded male bins in weight and in
com plexIty OF convolutions.
II he had 100 female brains and 100
maze brains mixed up together he would
seIec. the 100 largest and best developed
ones as belonging to more males than
females, Tor the reason that the average
male individual weighs more than the
average female individual
In fact, the speaker argued that medical
men were all q sea with reference 10 their
theory on the weight and development of
the brain as being an indication either OF
sex or OF intellect, and to fortify her posi-
lion she cited the fact that some OF the
best physicians in England declared that
= the brains of five Terra del Fuegan In
Gians submitted 10 them without expIana-
ton were the brains of average English
men. Yet scientists said that the Terra
del Fuegan is the lowest OF the human
race in the scale of intelligence.
The meeting closed with few remarks
rem Rabbi NIeto.