CORRESP ONDENCE. 



557 



t ween the male and the female brain can often 

 be found at the seventh or eighth month of 

 foetal life, and that the male has the frontal 

 lobe better developed than has the female, 

 and that there is an earlier development of 

 the secondary fissures in it, and in the pari- 

 etal lobe. 



I commend this matter to the serious 

 consideration of the " twenty leading brain- 

 anatomists," etc. I scarcely believe that 

 any one of them, without reference to the 

 " physical sex differences " referred to by 

 Miss Gardener, could tell the sex of a three- 

 months-old infant by a minute inspection of 

 all the rest of its body. 



A word more in relation to the subject 

 of the comparative weight of the brain in 

 the two sexes. Miss Gardener and, presuma- 

 bly, the " twenty leading brain-anatomists," 

 etc., deny that there is any superiority of 

 brain-weight in the man over that of wom- 

 an, and she instances the fact that the dif- 

 ference in the weight of some men's brains 

 is greater than that existing between that 

 of the sexes. No one questions that mat- 

 ter, so far as I know, but certainly nothing 

 of any importance to her case is to be drawn 

 from the fact. A like condition exists in 

 regard to almost all parts of the body. 

 Thus the average foot of a woman is smaller 

 than the average foot of a man, yet the dif- 

 ference between the feet of some men is 

 greater than the average difference between 

 the foot of man and woman. The average 

 ear of a man is larger than the average ear 

 of a woman. Yet some women have pro- 

 digious ears, far exceeding in size the ears 

 of some men ; it would certainly not be 

 correct to assume from these facts that a 

 woman's foot or a woman's ear is larger 

 than the corresponding members in man. 

 It is with averages deduced from a large 

 number of observations that we have to 

 deal in matters of this kind and not with 

 individual examples. 



Dr. Thurnam gives the average brain- 

 weight of ten men who were remarkable for 

 their intellectual development as 54*7 ounces, 

 among them that of Cuvier, 64 - 5 ounces ; 

 Abercrombie, 63 ounces ; Spurzheim, 55"6 

 ounces ; Daniel Webster, 535 ounces ; Lord 

 Campbell, 53 - 5 ounces, and Chalmers, 53 

 ounces. Now, let Mis3 Gardener and the 

 " twenty leading brain-anatomists," etc , 

 search the records of anthropology and their 

 own immense collections for the brain of a 

 woman weighing as much as the least of 

 these, that of Dr. Chalmers. I venture to 

 say that there has never been in the history 

 of the whole world a female brain, free from 

 obvious disease, weighing more than fifty-six 

 ounces, whereas there have been many male 

 brains exceeding this by several ounces. 



Next, in regard to the relative and abso- 

 lute brain-weights in the two sexes and 

 in animals generally, Miss Gardener shows 



that she is ignorant of the points involved. 

 She quotes me as saying, " Numerous obser- 

 vations show beyond doubt that the intel- 

 lectual power does not depend upon tha 

 weight of the brain relative to that of the 

 body so much as it does upon absolute brain- 

 weighty (The italics are Miss Gardener's, 

 who, not content with exercising the fem- 

 inine proclivity of italicizing what she 

 writes, takes that liberty to no small degree 

 with what I have written.) This is true, 

 but she does not understand in what its 

 truth constists, for she goes on to assert 

 that in accordance with its dictum the brains 

 of the whale and of the elephant, being of 

 vastly greater weight than the brain of 

 man, the animals possessing them should be 

 superior to man in intelligence. Here she 

 very disingenuously or very ignorantly at- 

 tempts to make it appear that I have de- 

 clared absol te brain- weight, regardless of 

 species and genera, and without reference 

 to the structure of the organ, to be the test 

 of intelligence ; whereas, in everything that 

 I have ever written with reference to this 

 point, I have invariably expressed the dia- 

 metrically opposite opinion. But, if the 

 brain of a whale or that of an elephant had 

 as large an amount of gray tissue and as 

 complex a structure as that of man, it is 

 very certain that then the whale and the 

 elephant would stand at the head of all ani- 

 mated nature, and that man would be their 

 slave. " The elephant, which disports him- 

 self for the amusement of small boys and 

 the enrichment of Mr. Barnum," would be 

 quite capable of causing the small boy and 

 Mr. Barnum to amble, and gyrate, and to 

 stand on their heads for his the elephant's 

 amusement and that of his wife and 

 children. It is not only in size that the 

 male brain differs from that of woman, but 

 that its structure and arrangement are also 

 different. 



The absolute brain-weight is, therefore, of 

 little consequence, except when it relates to 

 animals of the same species. A whale, with 

 a brain weighing six or seven pounds, would 

 be a more intelligent whale than one with a 

 brain of four or five pounds. A man with 

 a brain weighing sixty-five ounces is poten- 

 tially a more intellectual man than the one 

 with a brain of thirty-five ounces. In three 

 individuals of very feeble intelligence Tiede- 

 mann found the weights of their brains to 

 be 19|, 25|, and 22 ounces, respectively. 

 Mr. Gore has reported the case of a woman, 

 forty-two years of age, whose intellect was 

 infantine, who could only speak a few words, 

 whose gait was unsteady, and whose chief 

 occupation was carrying and nursing a doll. 

 After death the weight of her brain was 

 found to be but ten ounces and five grains. 



As to relative brain-weight, I do not at- 

 tach much importance to it, as it is subject 

 to variation according as the individual in- 



