244 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Whewell,* Liebig, Gall, Gambetta, and Bishop, tbe mind reader. 

 Only one remove from tbe foot of tbe list is Gambetta, a man of 

 indisputably bigb genius and ability, witb a brain weigbing only 

 40.9 ounces, f 



Tbe table goes to illustrate a general rule which I discovered and 

 published several years ago, tbat larger brains appertain to natives of 

 colder climates. Dr. John Abercrombie, for instance, was born at 

 Aberdeen, Scotland, on tbe German Sea, and farther nortb tban 

 any part of tbe United States. Sir Ralph Abercromby was born in 

 the county of Clackmannan, Scotland, where it is far colder than 

 any part of southern Europe. Lord Francis Jeffrey first saw light in 

 Edinburgh. General Butler was born in Deerfield, ISTew Hampshire. 

 Ivan Turgenieff, with the heaviest brain of all, was a native of cold, 

 inhospitable Russia. Dr. Franz Joseph Gall (brain weight 42.2 

 ounces) % was born in Wiirtemberg, in southern Germany, passed 

 most of his life in Vienna and Paris, and, being a student, spent 

 much of his time indoors. Gambetta was born at Cahors, France, of 

 Italian parents. This climatological view of the size of brains is con- 

 firmed by a paper, " Crania," of the Philadelphia Academy of Sci- 

 ences, which gives as the average size, in cubic inches, of the cranial 

 cavities of various nationalities, taking the results of many measure- 

 ments: Lapps, 102; Swedes, 100; Anglo-Saxons, 96; Finns, 95; 

 Anglo-Americans, 94; Germans, 92; Celts, 88; Malays, 86; Chinese, 

 85; Tombs of Gizeh, 84; embalmed Semitic, 82; Egyptians, 80; 

 Fellah, 79; Bengalese, 78. 



A table of average brain weights of various nationalities, com- 

 piled from Topinard's and Manouvrier's works and other standard 

 anthropological publications, illustrates the same tendency toward 

 greater brain weights in colder countries. One of its results is to 

 show that the colder air of the United States produces larger brains 

 in the negroes than the warm air of Africa. The table further shows, 

 in the comparisons of Hindus and African negroes, that the brains 

 are smallest in the warmest countries, irrespective of race or nation; 

 and that the largest average attained is in Scotland, where it is never 

 extremely warm. 



The measurement of the cranial cavity is a very uncertain gauge 

 of the size of the brain, for the cerebro-spinal fluid may occupy a 

 large share of the space. Weighing the brain is without doubt 

 the only scientifically certain method of determining its size and 

 mass. 



* Whewell also had " the scalp and skull thick." Brain weighed 49 ounces. The 

 Lancet, London, England, March 11, 1866, p. 280. 



+ Medical Times and Gazette, London, England, May 12, 1883, p. 525. 

 % London Medical Gazette, London, England, September 13, 1828, p. 4*78. 



