The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-18
BRAIN SIZE AND BRAIN POWER.
intellectual Value Rarely Measured
in Its Entirety.

From the Philadelphia Medical Journal
The relation OF brain size to brain power
seems TO be topic Of considerable inter
est 10 readers both medical and non med
ical, judging from the frequency with
which articles upon this subject appear in
print Probably Gon was the first to lay
down the proposition that men Of high
intellectual development have larger and
more richly conVoluted cerebrums than
their fellows, although this proposition on
his part seems to have been based as much
upon theory as upon facts and it remained
for Rudolph Wagner, in 1850. to show from
a series of investigations which he had
made upon the brains of men prominent
in philosophy and letters hat there is some
real foundation for this theory. The dis
cussion contained in Edinger's Anatomy
of the central nervous system, bearing on
this subject, Is Of much interest, and COM
ing from the pen of one who has made
an exhaustive and careful study of The
nervous system, may be considered of
some value. He maintains that The great
orator the commander of remarkable gen.
ius, the unusually energetic business man,
need not necessarily possess larger, heaV-
Ter brain, nor need this ability express
itself directly in the general re}a ions of
ure a mans intellectual value in It's en-
trety; indeed this is almost never posi-
bic. On the contrary, it is usually some
one marked personal characteristic which
gives position, authority, etc. to the man
Of prominence. And the peculiarites which
give rise to the successful orator, COM
mander, or business man may very we'l
be traced 10 the increased development of
single small coriical areas. AS an example,
Gambetta's brain, the speech area of which
was described as uncommonly developed,
weighed hardly more than the average of
smaller brains. This idea as to different
various regions seems TO be supported by
Cunninghams embryologic studies. He
finds that the embryologic assures and
convolutions appear by no means stimuli
taneously in alb individuals, nor do they
have the same conhguration when they
are once distinctly present. This fact seems
10 show that the brain corteX, the organ
of higher Intellectual activity, IS varlously
expanded In different individuals even
from the first Another matter Of some in
terest is the fact that Edingers observa-
tons in a considerable number of cases
are confirmatory of the opinion first adj
vanced by Perls, that a comparatively
large number of men who are intellectual
eminent give the impression from their
type of face that they may have had hy
drocephalus in early childhood from which
recovery took place, but which, owing to
the less resistance presented to the growth
Of the brain, allowed that organ 10 en-
large and develop more freely. Cuvier and
Rubnsteln are cited as examples of hy-
drocephaHc and rachiuc geniuses. Thus it
would seem that a mans chances for
greatness may depend either on his being
born with some little specialist corners
unusually well developed, or upon his being
born with a mild form Of hydrocephalc
degeneration from which he can recover,
and which allows him to deve.op an ALI
round big head.