APPENDIX A LV 



for the marked intellectual activity of our Canadian people. The table 

 of average brain weights of various nationalities, from Topinards and 

 Manouvrier^s Authropological publications, produce evidence of greater 

 brain weights in colder climates'. As proof of such, it is known that 

 the colder air of the United States, produces larger brains in the 

 negroes than the warm air of South Africa. Weighing the brain is 

 the only certain method of settling its exact proportions. The fluid 

 inside the skull, known as the cerebro-spinal, may occupy considerable 

 space, in the cranial cavity, and a small brain may be present. It is 

 not ■usual to find large brains, with small minds, in proof of which Dr. 

 Sims (Popular Science Monthly, 1898) records 125 persons of ordinary 

 or weak minds, whose brains were larger than those of many dis- 

 tinguished and well-known men. Daniel Webster, Agazziz, Xapoleon 

 I, Lord Byron, Baron Dupuytren and General Skoboleff of Russia, 

 world renowned men, whose brains weighed less than 53 ounces. In 

 fact the present impression is, that very intelligent men do not differ 

 greatly as to brain weights from the less gifted. Dr. Oliver Wendell 

 Holmes, the well-known author of " The Professor at Breakfast Table" 

 and a celebrated anatomist said " the walls of the head are double with 

 a great chamber of air between them, over the smallest and most 

 crowded organs. Can you tell me how much money is in a safe which 

 has thick walls by kneading the knobs with your fingers ? So when a 

 man fumbles about my head and talks about the organs of individuality, 

 size, &c., I trust him as much as I should if he felt over the outside of 

 ray strong box, and told me that there was a five dollar bill under that 

 rivet." Again, larger and complicated brain convolutions are by some, 

 supposed to be associated with superior mental power. In the lower 

 animals such is not borne out. Rodents, such as beavers, rats and mice, 

 have little brain and no convolutions and the beaver particularly 

 exhibits great mechanical skill in the construction of dams and storing 

 of food for the winter. The sheep has numerous convolutions in the 

 brain with well marked evidence of great stupidity. Wagner of Got- 

 tingen, states he has never seen examples of highly complicated con- 

 volutions, even among eminent men whose brains he examined. Spe- 

 cial mental gifts have not so far been proved to be the result of many 

 convolutions. 



Again, we know that exercise and training strengthen the brain 

 and increase its weight and size in man, of which Gladstone was a 

 remarkable instance. All things considered, the prospect is that brain 

 will still go on developing towards marked increased activity, and 

 practical usefulness, in the genus homo. 



The physical aspect of the brain power presents many points of 

 interest. We can observe and study the brain and determine upon 



