The San Francisco call., 1905-06-18
MAN
WILL BE
ALL BRAIN

NR BURT GREEN WILDER, the
well-known neurolcgist of Cornell
II University has collection of hu-
man brains. in the neighborhood of
thousand in number. and he is con-
stantly adding TO it. Not a few promi-
nent men. among them Mark Twain,
have wilIed their brains to DR.. Wilder.
Naturally the neurologist, with his
large collection now in hand, has an
exceptional opportunity TO study the
organ
y short timesago while in conversa-
tion with a group of student friends,
he made the most startling prophecy
for the future of man. 1T is 10 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 streetcars. but we
have forgotten how TO walk. II is true.
Just TO give you an idea how fast our
bodies are becoming dwarfed and weak
ened l might mention the fact that less
dRO"dn
short time in the course of evolution
all people were athletes. and a man at
the Olympian games in Greece made a
broad jump of sixty feet. Something
like twenty-five feet is the limit now.
In these days an athlete is such a won
der that we pay money to see him per-
form little feats that a 5-year-old child
could do in former times.
Conditions have changed wonderfully
in this short space Of 5000 years. Even at
this very moment evolution seems to be
jumping and fastening forward at pace
unknown TO the past. This Is especially
true with the brain. DR.. John Carly OF
Chicago. who has made measurements or
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. I 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 10 learn and to perceive things. we
know the brain has really just begun TO
develop. " is even difficult 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 10 further
advanced.
you probably wonder, when we have
become a mere lump Of brain without a
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 IL all You know that even
now people often know what another is
thinking 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 instru-
ments receive their wave vibrations. AS
for transportation, this will be easy when
we consider that we have now instru-
ments 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. Likewise chemically
predigested food will be supplied to the
brain by the use Of a machine run by the
force of thought. The science of cherlts-
try will easily take care Of the reproduce
ton of the race of brains"