Los Angeles herald., 1905-06-25
EA.SNAlN
MAN OF THE FUTURE
r. BURT GREEN WILDER, the


| we'll known neurologist, Of Cor
nell university, has a collection
of human brains, in the neighborhood
of a thousand in number, and he Is
constantly adding to 1t. Not few
prominent men, among them Mark
Twain, have willed their brains to DIR.
Wilder. Naturally, the neurologist,
with his large collection now on hand,
has an exceptional opportunity to study
the organ.
A short time ago, while In conversa-
tion with a group Of student friends,
he made a most startling prophecy for
the future of man. ut 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 It is true
Just to give you an idea of how fast
our bodies are becoming dwarfed and
weakened, I might mention the fact
that less than 5000 years ago-an ex-
tremely short time in the course of
evolution-all people were athletes, and
a man at the Olympic games in Greece
made broad jump of sixty feet.
Something like twenty-five feet is the
limit now. In these days an athlete is
such wonder that we pay money to
see him perform little feats that a
5-year-old child could do in former
times.
Conditions have changed wonderful
ly In this short space of 5000 years. Even
at this very moment evolution seems
to be jumping and fastening forward
at pace unknown in the past. This is
specially true with the brain. DIR. John
Carty Of Chicago, who has made meas
urements of the heads of students for
the last dozen years. says that the head
of the average American student has
grown an inch in circumference 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
1t is now to learn and to perceive
things, we know the brain has really
just begun to develop. 1t is even die-
ficult to remember what we have once
been told. We have to be drilled and
drilled before we learn a thing. In
fact, the brain is quite stupid when we
consider its limitations. This will not
be true when the brain is further ad-
vanced.
"You probably wonder when we
have become a mere lump of brain
without body, how we can transport
ourselves from place to place. how we
can talk without a mouth, how the
brain will get nourishment 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 1t all. You know that even now peo-
pie often know what another is think
ing without a word having been ut
tered. 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 receive them, even as wireless
telegraph instruments receive their
wave vibrations. AS for transporta-
ton, this will be easy when we con-
slider that we now have instruments
which can detect the heat Of a candle
a mile away. We shall have more
delicate machines which will catch the
power of the wave thoughts and set
the machine In motion. Likewise
chemically predigested food will be
supplied to the brain by the use of =
machine run by the force of thought
The science OF chemistry will easily
take care OF the reproduction OF the
race OF brains"