STUDY OF BRAINS OF SIX EMINENT SCIENTISTS AND SCHOLARS. 177 



can Anthropological Association at about the same time. The work bestowed upon 

 these brains was ampKtied by studies that were conducted throughout the same period 

 upon the brains of other notable persons as well as exceptional brains of various races 

 and of normal, ordinary persons executed in New York State for nmrder — available 

 for removal and preservation immediately after death and therefore affording for com- 

 parison a series of as nearly fresh and perfectly preserved brains as can be. The work 

 was conducted in a systematic manner with the view of utilizing new criteria of brain- 

 measurement and fissural pattern to serve as a basis for the formulation of standards 

 of which we stand so urgently in need. For, in the comparison of human brains one 

 of the chief difficulties to contend with lies in the inadequacy of former attempts to 

 express morphological differences in exact tei'ms, and however irksome and tedious a 

 row of statistical figures may be to the anatomical investigator I could not help but 

 feel how necessary it had become to resort to exact expressions of size and form. There- 

 fore, in addition to my general observations on the surface morphology of these brains, 

 I have ventured to obtain additional facts from a study of measurements in compara- 

 tive tabulation of the brains of the two Doctors Seguin, Major John W. Powell, George 

 Francis Train and Major J. B. Pond, together with those of ten — for all present 

 intents and purposes — normal brains of men executed by electricity. 



I. 



A brief review of what has been done with the brains of notable individuals may 

 prove interesting and the writer ventures to interpolate a fairly complete series of 

 references, nearly all in chronological order, to the brains of 130 notable men and four 

 women. 



1. Beethoven (1770-1827), German composer. Dr. Johann Wagner, who was 

 present at the autopsy of Beethoven, is quoted by J. von Seyfried as having said that 

 " the. convolutions appeared twice as numerous and the fissures twice as deep as in 

 ordinary brains." J. von Seyfried : " Ludwig von Beethoven' Studien." Schaaf- 

 hausen : 16. Versamml. d. deutsch. Anthropolog. Gesellsch.; Correspondenzbl. in Vol. 

 XVI of Arch, f Anthr., 1885. 



2. Gall, F. Jos (1758-1828), German Anatomist and Phrenologist. In the report 

 of the last illness and post-mortem examination of Dr. Gall there is the following state- 

 ment : "At the base of the skull four or five ounces of fluid were found. The brain 

 which was not dissected weighed two pounds, ten ounces and a quarter. The right 

 side of the cerebellum was rather larger than the left, and contained a small fibro- 

 cellular tumor, which internally was of a bony structure." According to Topinard 

 the cranial capacity was 1692 cubic centimeters. (Brain-weight = 1198 grams.) 



