The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1911-04-20

NO Particular reason TO mink That
One Results From the Other-Future
Anatomists May Affect Profoundly
Our Political System-Why the Ne.
gro Is Slow to Rise.
Scientists Of today are declaring that
the anatomists Of the future are going
to exert profound influence on the
political system Of the country This
change is to be brought about, it is as
serted, by a more intimate knowledge
OF the structure and functions of the
human brain, Of which less is known
at present than of a majority of the vi
tai organs.
An advocate Of this theory, the ed
itor of American Medicine, urges all
men Of intelligence to will their brains
to science for purposes of study. Then,
he says, when additional knowledge Of
the brain is gained we may find a way
to keep the ballot out of the hands of
those who are unfit to use it.
"Genius and insanity" says the writ
er, ''seem to be linked together in the
popular mind, though no two things
could be more widely separated. A
few men-Lombroso, for instance
have made an extensive study Of the
psychic and nervous characteristics of
great men and have concluded that
genius is neurosis allied to epilepsy.
while the few men of genius who have
developed insanity have given rise to a
widespread opinion that every genius
is insane.
Inheritance In Evidence.
1.-The absurdity of all these specula-
tons arises from the failure to realize
that mental phenomena are the prod
ucts of brain tissue and that when we
find extraordinary mental endowments
it invariably means that the man has
been born with an extraordinarily de-
veloped brain. There is almost always
some evidence Of inheritance. Indeed,
study Of British great men long ago
showed that almost every one of them
appeared in family already noted for
achievements.
Those born to mediocre families are
so few in number as to have no weight
on this generalization, and even they
are generally of the type in which only
one brain center has been developed,
so that the mental greatness is strictly
limited to very small sphere Anato-
mists have been rarely able to secure
brains Of great men to find out where
in they differ from the brains one finds
on the dissecting table. which are al
most invariably types of men who have
so utterly failed in the struggle for
existence that their bodies are con-
signed to the potter's field.
"Besides, the brain is so difficult to
preserve and study that it has been
shamefully neglected in favor of those
organs coming within the sphere Of
practical surgery and medicine. What
little has been found out so far leaves
no doubt whatever of the material ba-
sis of intellectual greatness.
Spitzka's Discovery.
"Spitzka has already proved that
such brains are endowed with a very
highly developed system Of fibrous con-
AASSSAOAAos
cells. This is the main characteristic
which distinguishes the human brain
from all others, and we should expect it
to be most marked in the highest men.
''The nervous instability of the I'M
usual man is an entirely different mat
ter from the neuroses. The highly de-
veloped white matter makes each brain
cell more efficient, and its activities
must be greater than in the ordinary
man. whose mental sluggishness is
sign Of his lower organization. The
instability of the great is therefore a
perfectly normal functioning of per-
fectly healthy tissue and no more
sign of disease than is the activity of
humming bird as compared with the
slowness of buzzard.
ION the other hand, delicate and in
ricate machinery is easily disarrang-
ed, and this is the penalty of greatness,
for such men are annoyed or even
disturbed by influences which are not
even felt by the phlegmatic. It may
be true, therefore, that slightly high
er percentage of great men do become
neurasthenic or insane, but if they
could have been saved from the injury
they would have remained healthy-a
rule which applies to the majority Of
all cases of insanity.
Very Great Are Abnormal.