A BRAIN OF ABOUT ONE-HALF THE AVERAGE 



WEIGHT FROM AN INTELLIGENT 



WHITE MAN. 



By professor B. G. WILDER. 



(Read April 22, iQio.) 



For the privilege of examining and reporting upon this unusual 

 — perhaps unique — brain I am indebted to Dr. J. H. Larkin, pro- 

 fessor of pathology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 

 New York city. 



History. — According to Dr. Larkin's records Daniel Lyon died 

 on the tenth of October, 1907, from asphyxia due to edema of the 

 glottis. He was Irish, 46 years old, five and one-half feet high, 

 and weighed 145 pounds. No relatives have been discovered and 

 it is not known that any survive. At the time of his death he lived 

 at 409 E. 17th St., New York City, and was a watchman for the 

 New York Contracting Company at the Pennsylvania Terminal, 

 34th St. The legal representative of that company says that " from 

 all reports there was nothing defective or peculiar about him, 

 either mentally or physically." No photograph or hat-measurement 

 has been obtained. No information has been gained by inquiries 

 addressed to his alleged fellow-workmen or former places of resi- 

 dence, but Dr. Larkin was informed that he could read and write; 

 that he was regarded as competent and in full possession of his 

 faculties ; and that as a laborer he had worked in one position for 

 twenty years. There seems to be no reason why he should not be 

 regarded as of ordinary intelligence ; yet, as will be seen, his 

 brain might have belonged to a feeble-minded person, or even an 

 idiot. 



Shortly after death the brain was removed in the presence of 

 Dr. Larkin and the coroner's physician. Dr. Philip O'Hanlon. No 

 head-measurements were made, but it did not appear to be unusual 

 in either size or shape. The brain filled the cranium ; there was no 



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