Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1905-09-07
MAN WILL BE ALL BRAIN.
Startling Prophecy Of Noted Neurolo-
gist Regarding Human
Evolution.

DR.. Burt Green Wilder, the we'll
known neurologist, of Cornell univer-
sity, has a collection of human brains,
in the neighborhood of thousand IN
number, and he is constantly adding to
1t, states the Indianapolis Sentinel. Not
a few prominent men, among them Mark
Twain, have willed their brains to DR..
Wilder. Naturally, the neurologist,
with his large collection now in hand,
has an exceptional opportunity to study
the organ.
A short time ago, while in converse
ton with a group Of student friends, he
made the most startling prophecy for
the future of man. 1T is no play of the
imagination" said he, ito say that
some time in the future the body of man
will not exist-he will be just brain.
We are fast approaching that state
now. The eternal law of nature, which
says that all things that are not used
shall not exist, is at work with man.
Man is not using his body, but his brain,
therefore the body must cease to be.
Evolution works slowly but truly. You
know Emerson said we have coaches
and street cars, but we have forgotten
how to walk. 1t is true. Just to give
you an idea how fast our bodies are be-
coming dwarfed and weakened, might
mention the fact that less than 1900
years ago-an extremely short time in
the course of evolution-all people were
athletes, and a man at the Olympian
games in Greece made broad jump of
60 feet Something like rs feet is the
limit now. In these days an athlete is
such wonder that we pay money to see
him perform little feats that five-year-
old child could do in former times.
Conditions have changed wonder
fully in this short space Of 1900 years.
Even at this very moment evolution
seems to be jumping and fastening for
ward at a pace unknown to the past.
This is especially true with the brain.
DR.. John Carly, of Chicago, who has
made measurements of the heads of
students for the last dozen years, says
that the head of the average American
student has grown an inch in circum-
ference in that space of time. do not
doubt the truth of the statement.
when, however. we consider what
the brain must yet come to and how
hard it is now to learn, and to per-
ceive things, we know the brain has real
ly just begun to develop. 1t is even diff
fcult to remember what We have once
been told. We have to be drilled and
drilled before we learn thing. In fact,
the brain is quite stupid when we con-
slider it's limitations. This will not be
true when the brain is further advanced.
You probably wonder, when we have
become a mere lump Of brain without
a body. how we can talk without a
mouth. how the brain will get nourish-
ment for itself and how the race will
reproduce itself. 1t is not so difficult to
understand something of how all this
will be done. Evolution and science
will take care of it ALL You know that
even now people often know what an
other is thinking without a word having
been uttered. Wave thoughts seem to
pass through the air So. by the mere
thinking wave currents of thought will
be sent out and all other brains may re-
ceive them, even as wireless telegraph
instruments receive their wave vibra-
tions. AS for transportation. this will
be easy when we consider that we now
have instruments which can detect the
heat of a candle mile away. We shall
have more delicate machines which will
catch the power Of the wave thoughts
and set the machine in motion. Like
wise chemically predigested food will be
supplied to the brain by the use of a ma
chine run by the force of thought. The
science of chemistry will easily take
care of the reproduction OF the race of
brains"