The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-12-12
AN UNUSUAL COLLECTION.
Professor Burt Green Wilder's Fine As
sortment of Human Brains.

DE-
New York Mail n Express: Attention
has been drawn. by two or three recent
true statements in the ~ewspapers to a
collection which Is being amassed by a
Cornell professor. OF course, all sorts of
things are gathered nowadays by men and
women who a the collecting instinct.
Serious men collect not only rare prints,
old book bindings, book plates, pistols,
knives, forks and spoons, but old shoes,
newspaper title headings, Nostmarks and
such like trifiing tings. 1t is all done In
a grave. scientific spirit. Mark Twain
told of a man once who was collecting
echoes. We have forgotten just how he
did it, out the distinct impression of the
mans serious. scientific spirit remains in
our recollection. Everything is collected.
1t would seem to be impossible to sur
prise the world with any sort Of collec-.
ton.
However, Professor Burt Green Wilder
of Cornell university is making a very
important collection. the nature and OBJ
ject of which certainly surprises one a lit
tie, when one first hears of it. Professor
Wilder is collecting human brains. He
is at the head of the department Of neu-
rology and vertebrate zoology and physi-
ology at Cornell, and he Is a recognized
authority on the physiology Of the brain.
In a scientific spirit, he is trying to de-
termine a question which certain other
persons somewhat in the public eye are
treating empirically-the question wheth-
er the bent Of the human mind and char
acter can be sensibly determined by
changes or development in the brain, pro-
duced by the training of the young. Can
men be given a cerebral development
which is greatly in advance of their inher-
itance? Or are men merely the creatures
of their heredity? Was Webster's power
altogether born in him because he was
endowed by nature with a gigantic brain?
Can we make Websters out of little
Thomas, and Richard and Henry, by TAX
ing them in time, and building up great
brains in them?
To answer such questions, a man of
science must have brains in more senses
than one. That, at least, Is Professor
Wilder's opinion. Hence his collection.
He e~ndeavors by gentle persuasion to in
duce as many gifted people as possible to
give him their brains when they are quite
sure they are done with them. 1t is I'M
derstood that the late Elizabeth Cady
Stanton promised her brains to Professor
Wilder, but her heart must nave misgiyen
her at the last, for her will contained no
bequest of them. Professor Goodwin
Smith has promised his brains to Profess
sor Wilder, and SO have several other per-
sons of consequence in the world. The
professor already has a noteworthy col
lection, but 1t is nothing to what it will
be when all these requests fall III.
Meantime, the professor does not insist
hat the specimens which he collects shall
come wholly from geniuses, great crimi-
nails and other really eminent persons.
The brains Of quite commonplace people
may have a legitimate place in the colec-
ton, doubtless as illustrating the physi-
illogical conditions which produce the
commonplace. No brain. however humble,
will be despised. Professor Wilder is
, open to gifts.