CORRESP ONDENCE. 



267 



ticket her as accurately as though she were 

 to appear with ear-rings and train in a 

 ball-room. Now, if all this is true, it would 

 surely be the easiest and simplest thing in 

 the world to determine the sex of a subject 

 by an examination of the brain alone. And 

 if these " great and numerous differences " 

 are natural, potential sex conditions, and not 

 the results of difference in education, occu- 

 pation, mental stimulus, and general environ- 

 ment, they would be as easily distinguished 

 in the brains of infants (of the same age, 

 size, and condition) as in the brains of adults. 



The physical sex differences which we 

 all know to be natural, necessary, and in- 

 evitable, are as easily distinguishable at 

 birth as in maturity. 



Now, I am assured by all of the brain 

 experts and scientists to whom my questions 

 were submitted, that the sex of two infants 

 not only could not be " perceived at once," 

 but could not be determined at all by these 

 certainly sufficiently plain and numerous 

 differences in brain size, matter, and condi- 

 tion of which the doctor writes so confi- 

 dently. 



And, further than this, I am assured by 

 the leading brain anatomist in America that 

 no careful scientific observer could risk more 

 than a mere guess as to the sex of adult 

 brains, even upon the most careful and ex- 

 haustive examination. 



And even more than this, it is a well- 

 known fact that individual brain differences 

 between persons of the same sex are great- 

 er and more numerous than any known to 

 exist between the sexes, and that such a 

 guess would, therefore, be worth very little 

 to a scientific mind. 



The difference in weight, for example, 

 between the brains of Cromwell and Gam- 

 betta, or Byron aud Dante, are absolutely 

 known to be far greater than any known to 

 exist between the sexes, as such, even in 

 spite of the relative lighter body-weight of 

 women. But if Dr. Hammond still believes 

 in these numerous and easily detected sex 

 differences in the brain-mass itself even 

 including the weight test I am prepared 

 to offer him an opportunity to prove his 

 case, very greatly advance scientific knowl- 

 edge, and win for himself fame as an origi- 

 nal discoverer in a disputed field. If the 

 doctor will agree to it, we can decide wheth- 

 er he can distinguish sex in brain by a very 

 simple experiment. 



I will agree to furnish (by permission of 

 the leading brain anatomists and from their 

 collections) twenty well - preserved brains, 

 marked in cipher, Dr. Hammond to divide 

 the male from the female brains by apply- 

 ing any or all of his numerous and readily 

 perceivable sex tests. If he can not do this, 

 he has certainly lost his case. 



In the matter of weight the doctor con- 

 cedes that the relative size and weight of 



the brain are about the same in the two sexes 

 slightly in woman's favor which he says 

 does not count ; although, when he finds this 

 same relative difference between two men, 

 he argues that it does count for a great 

 deal. But in the dilemma to which this 

 seemed to reduce him he rushes into a most 

 extraordinary statement. He says : " Nu- 

 merous observations show, beyond doubt, 

 that the intellectual power does not depend 

 upon the weight of brain relative to that of 

 the body, so much as it does upon absolute 

 brain-weighty Now, if this were true, an 

 elephant might out-think any of us ; and the 

 whale, whose intellectual achievements have 

 never been looked upon as absolutely in- 

 cendiary (if we except Jonah's friend), would 

 rank the greatest man on record, and have 

 brains enough left to equip a fair-sized fe- 

 male seminary. 



The average human male brain weighs 

 from 1,300 to 1,400 grammes, and even a 

 very young whale furnishes 2,312 grammes 

 of " intellect-producing substance," as the 

 doctor felicitously terms it ; while the brain 

 of a large whale weighed in 1883 tipped 

 the beam at 6,700 grammes ! 



Truly, then, if absolute brain-weight, 

 and not relative weight, is to be the test, 

 here was a " mute, inglorious Milton " in- 

 deed ! 



Almost any elephant which disports it- 

 self for the amusement of small boys and 

 the enrichment of Mr. Barnum is several 

 Cuviers in disguise, or perhaps an entire 

 medical faculty. 



So much for the " absolute - weight " 

 statement. There are nineteen other points 

 in the doctor's two articles upon which I 

 have data of a nature as radically opposed 

 to his theories and statements as these ; but, 

 since lack of space forbids their introduc- 

 tion here, I can add only one other sample. 

 He says, " A fact which is somewhat as- 

 tonishing to those not aware of it is, that 

 the head of a boy or girl does not grow in 

 size after the seventh year.'''' There is no 

 sort of doubt about that being " somewhat 

 astonishing," but there is a vast deal of 

 doubt about it being a " fact." It does not 

 require a " brain-expert " or anatomist to 

 decide that point. Any hatter knows that 

 it is absolutely incorrect. But lest the 

 whole hatting fraternity be not looked upon 

 as an offset to Dr. Hammond's authority, I 

 have permission to state that one of the 

 leading and I think I will not exaggerate 

 if I say the foremost brain anatomist of 

 New York has taken such measurements 

 for many years, and in his own family there 

 is a boy whose head has increased in size 

 steadily up to his eleventh year, and still 

 offers abundant evidence of its future in- 

 tentions in the same direction. This, he 

 assures me, is not exceptional, but is the 

 usual and normal condition. 



