The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1924-09-02
ISF0UND,
NO CLUE TO
brains
Size and Shape Have Nothing
to Do With Intellect,
Scientist Thinks.
By MARGERY REX.
International NOwS Service.

NEW YORK. Sept. 2.-Do PIN
heads make the best poets?
Robert Browning, whose own
racket" was poetry, said he be-
Iieved that poets as a class had
small heads. AS an example, he
cited Byron, whose brain was found
to be underweight.
Now all pinheads, poets included,
have been INDICATED by Professor
Reid, of Aberdeen, who has an.
nounced, after. measuring many
students craniums, that size and
shape Of the head tell nothing of
brain power. Among those 80 re-
lieved of the opprobrium attached to
pinheads, g. r. Watts, the famous
English painter, could be numbered,
since his tiny head was one Of his
chief claims to fame.
While, as authorities here agree,
1t is true that the head size means
nothing, except to a long:haired
woman trying to buy hat this sea-
son, famous men quite often have
possessed unusually shaped heads.
Doctor Frederic Lucas, honorary d.
rector of the Museum of Natural
History, assures us that 1t IL the
twists and twirls Of the brain ana
not its shape that bring results. He
asks:
Do you know what schooIboys
used to sing out about their com.
panions' heads? Here 1t Is:
Small head?
Little wit.
Big head?
Not O. Bit
That was a convenient sIur to
hurl at prOdigieS.
ut is really the forehead and
not the back of the head that
makes for intelligence, anyway.
The back Is the part that helps
US to cope with life.
"And quality, not quantity, counts
as far as brains are concerned.
The Neanderthal man, q primeval
fellow, had a larger brain than the
average man to today, but it didn't
do him any good.
"The large brain Of the primitive
man lacked the convoIutiOns that
make tOday's brain the fine thing
IL is.
while many of our notable men,
have not possessed large brains, a
few have. George Cuvier. for ex-
ample. He was the patron saint
Of comparative anatomy. Daniel
Webster, too. had a large brain.
II think there have been many
striking instances. of brilliant peo-
pie who had small brains. And
1 am pretty sure that / can point
out, as an example, Doctor G.
Brown Goode, who was the first
director Of the National Museum.
Not large, but how brilliant"
Regarding the proportion of pin
1Y n
refused to commit himself.
1T is a great pity that we have
no statistics on that.
Nov you ask me about the
aristocratic aspect of a small head
in a woman! Those values in
beauty change from time to time.
Once we thought woman must
have sloping shoulders in order to
be regarded as 9 beauty. Now
look at the girls. whose shoulders
measure the same as those Of
their athletic brothers."
Another museum authority, who
asks that he be protected from
publicity-goodness knows why the
fear-has something to say about
small and big heads.
Nothing to it. It makes no
difference what size the skull Is.
Brain power Is not related In any
way. to the proportions Of the
head structure.
Yet here is q curious thing.
Some Of our greatest men were
hydrOcephalics when yOung-the
very large-headed type. Usually
such children are backward, since
their heads are abnOrmalIy large
for their age,
while this water on the brain
or rather, this serum-ie being
absorbed, as it sometimes il, the
brain has chance to expand
From records we have checked
up that many brilliant men have
had the hydrocephalic skull. But
that does not mean that all Of the
hydrocephalics are bright. Ouita
the contrary.
This skull condition. which ot
birth borders upon the pathoIoricaI
this condition, which, carried fur.
Their than the state of birth. Leads
to tdiocy-often turns to brflliance.
Now that explanation is NOT scIen.
tific, but is based on long experi.
ence and observation.
Scientifically, we don't thtnl, the
size Of the brain means much. The
prehistoric brain weighed from 1900
to 1000 cubic centimeters. The
average one today weighs 1000.
They had q greater size IN
brains. But now we have, in ad.
dition, the experience Of the past
II think Goethe, Beethoven and
possibly Napoleon were hydro
cephalics to begin with.
But look at the smart small
heads around you every day being