254 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Brain-Weight and Mental Power. Great 

 weight of brain is commonly regarded as 

 evidence of great cerebral power. That 

 this conclusion, however, is erroneous, is 

 shown by Dr. Robert Lawson, who, in the 

 Lancet, compares the brain-weights of some 

 of the great men of modern times with the 

 brain-weights of lunatics who died in the 

 West Riding Asylum. He gives the follow- 

 ing instructive table : 



Ounces. Ounces. 



Brain-weight of Dr. Chalmers 53 Lunatic 58 



" Daniel Webster.. 53.5 " 53 



" Sir J. Y. Simpson 54 " 5S.5 



" Goodsir 57.5 " 59.5 



Abercrombie .... 63 " 60.5 



Cuvier 61 " 61 



It will be observed that only Abercrombie 

 aud Cuvier surpass in weight of brain the 

 inmates of the asylum. One of these lu- 

 natics, he whose brain weighed 61 ounces, 

 was seventy-one years of age when he died ; 

 when he was forty-five, his brain probably 

 weighed not less than 64 ounces, thus equal- 

 ing in weight the brain of the great Cuvier, 

 and exceeding that of Daniel Webster by 

 20 per cent. From all this it follows that 

 great weight of brain is not in itself a con- 

 clusive evidence of great intellect. 



From this comparison of brain-weights, 

 Dr. Lawson passes to the consideration of 

 the relations between genius and insanity. 

 "Every day," he says, "the observation of 

 the poet, that great wit is nearly allied to 

 madness, gains a wider and more practical 

 acceptance. So much is this the case that 

 Dr. Wilks ventures to make the statement 

 that it is probably the insane element which 

 imparts what we call genius to the human 

 race, the true celestial lire. And though it 

 is fearful to think of the propagation of a 

 race tainted with insanity, yet it does not 

 follow that an infusion of the insane blood 

 may not be d sirable. Dr. Maudsley holds 

 the same opinion." 



Preservation of ZVo'logical Specimens. 

 Last summer, Profs. Verrilland Rice, of Yale 

 College, made a n imb sr of experiments to 

 i rtain the effects of various chemical 

 preparations upon marine invertebrates, the 

 objects being to improve existing methods 

 of preserving specimens and to ascertain 

 tin- best means of killing in an expanded 

 state species which ordinarily contract very 

 much when put directly into alcohol. The 



results are given in the American Journal of 

 Science, by Prof. Verrill, who says that sev- 

 eral very fine preparations of Aciinice in 

 a state of nearly perfect expansion were 

 made by slowly adding a concentrated solu- 

 tion of picric acid to a small quantity of sea- 

 water in which they had been allowed to ex- 

 pand. When fairly dead, they were trans- 

 ferred to a pure saturated solution of the 

 acid, and allowed to remain from one to 

 three hours. They were then placed in 

 alcohol for permanent preservation. The 

 alcohol should be renewed after a day or 

 two, and this should be repeated until all 

 the water has been absorbed from the speci- 

 men. Hydroids and most kinds of jelly-fish- 

 es can be easily preserved in the same way. 

 Even delicate. Ctenophoree can be thus pre- 

 served so as to make fair specimens. The 

 experiments were made with the view of 

 finding some poison that will kill mollusks, 

 especially gasteropods, in a fully-extended 

 state, but the results were negative ; at 

 least no method was discovered that is 

 more generally successful than that of al- 

 lowing them to suffocate in stale sea-water, 

 through excess of carbonic acid and de- 

 ficiency of oxygen. 



Improvement of the Steam-Engine. In 



giving testimony before the Government Com- 

 missioners on the Advancement of Science in 

 Great Britain, Mr. Anderson, superintendent 

 of machinery at Woolwich, spoke of Joule's 

 experiments on the conservation of energy 

 as of immense value and as being an exam- 

 ple of what government should do for the 

 common good. Joule had made engineers 

 thoroughly dissatisfied with their present 

 knowledge as to what they can do with 

 steam. " I believe," he continued, " that 

 what Joule did will do more for this coun- 

 try than even what James Watt did. The 

 part that James Walt took was very great, 

 and the world gives him full credit for it ; 

 but the world is scarcely willing to give 

 credit to Joule. Engineers know that the 

 best steam-engine is not doing one-sixth of 

 the work which it ought to do and can do. 

 That is a sad state of matters to be in when 

 we know that we arc so far wrong, but yet 

 no one will go to the trouble of going to the 

 end of the question so as to improve the 

 steam-engine as it might be done." 



