73 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



well be omitted from an address such as this purports to be, and it 

 may well engage a» little attention before I bring these remarks to 

 a close. 



And first a few words in regard to the comparative anatomy and 

 physiology of the male and female brain. 



The skull of the male of the human species is of greater capacity 

 than that of the female, and it is a singular fact that the difference in 

 favor of the male increases with civilization. Thus in savage nations 

 as the Australians and the negroes of Africa, the skulls of men and 

 women are much more alike in size than they are in Europeans. It 

 would appear from this fact, either that women from some cause or 

 other have not availed themselves of the advantages of civilization as 

 factors in brain-development to the same extent as man has ; or that 

 among savages there is not that dissimilarity in mental work that is 

 found among civilized nations, and that hence there is not the same 

 necessity for a difference in brain-development. For it naturally fol- 

 lows that, in the normal skull, there is a correspondence between its 

 size and that of the organ contained within it. 



Many observations have shown that the average male brain weighs 

 a little over forty-nine ounces, while the average female brain is a 

 little over forty-four ounces, or about five ounces less. The propor- 

 tion existing between the two is therefore as 100 : 90. 



This apparently makes a good showing for man, but when we look 

 at the matter in another, and possibly a more correct light, the advan- 

 tage is rather the other way ; for, relatively to the weight of the body 

 in the two sexes, the difference, what there is, is in favor of woman. 

 The body of the female is shorter and weighs less than that of the 

 male. Thus, in man the weight of the brain to that of the body has 

 been found to be an average of 1 : 30*50, while in woman it is as 

 1 : 3G*4G, a difference of *04 in her favor. I have said that possibly 

 this may be a more correct way of determining the size of the brain 

 than by absolute measurements without regard to the size of the body. 

 The doubt arises from the fact that we do not know that very thin 

 persons, in whom of course, other things being equal, the brain would 

 be relatively larger, are more remarkable for mental vigor than are 

 very stout ones, in whom the relative size of the brain would be less. 

 Such being the case, it is difficult to believe that the proportionate 

 size of the brain to that of the body has any important influence as a 

 factor in the production of mind. It is the absolute rather than the 

 relative amount of gray matter that is to be considered in determining 

 the brain-power. It must, however, be borne in mind that the quan- 

 tity of gray matter can not always be positively affirmed from a deter- 

 mination of the size of the brain, though in general it can. A person, 

 for instance, may have a large head and a large brain and the layer of 

 cortical substance be very thin ; and another person with a smaller 

 brain may have the cortex so thick as to more than compensate for its 



