114 Notices of Books. (January, 
centre, the brain. He seeks to answer the question, ‘* What has 
Mind to do with brain substance, white or grey? Can any facts 
or laws regarding the spirit of man be gained through a scrutiny 
of nerve fibres and nerve cells?” He reminds us, in the first 
place, of the very intimate connection existing between mind 
and body; the dependence of our frame of mind upon hunger, 
fatigue, bodily illness, stimulants, &c. ‘‘ Bodily affliction,” he 
remarks, ‘‘is often the cause of a total change in the moral 
nature.” A little reflection will enable us to see that, although 
the mind is influenced more or less directly by other organs, the 
brain is the chief mental organ, and the mind is influenced 
through it. The brain is a very large and complicated organ ; 
it is computed to receive no less than one-fifth of the entire 
amount of blood in the organism, which circulates through it, 
and this surely indicates some considerable activity. Physiolo- 
gists have proved that the brain is indispensable to thought, 
feeling, and volition. Clever men usually have large brains, or 
brains with numerous and deep convolutions. Thus, while the 
average European brain weighs 49°5 ounces, that of Gauss 
weighed 52°6, De Morgan 52°75, Dr. Abercrombie 63, and 
Cuvier 64°5 ounces. We should like also to know the brain- 
weights of Descartes, Humboldt, Mozart, and Sir Walter Scott. 
Among idiots, brain-weights as low as 15, 13, and even 8’5 ounces 
have been found. An ordinary man, Professor Bain remarks, 
could not retain in his memory more than one-third or one-fourth, 
perhaps even less, of the facts remembered by Cuvier. ‘‘ There 
would be no exaggeration in saying that while size of brain 
increases in arithmetical proportion, intellectual range increases 
in geometrical proportton.” 
An interesting account of the minute structure of the brain is 
given in the third chapter, from which we learn that the grey 
matter of the brain is composed of nerve-fibre mixed with small 
pear-shaped corpuscles, with prolongations to connect them with 
the nerves. The average diameter of the fibres is one six-thou- 
sandth of an inch, while the corpuscles range from one three- 
hundredth to one three-thousandth of an inch in diameter. The 
number of nerve-fibres constituting the optic nerve is very large, 
—probably there are as many as one hundred thousand. A few 
useful woodcuts accompany these descriptions. 
In the next chapter we find, among other things, a physical 
theory of pleasure and pain, and in a long note (p. 75), we have 
the author’s views regarding corporal and capital punishment. 
In place of hanging, he advocates an electric shock, and in place 
of flogging (which is revolting to the spectator, and inflicts per- 
manent damage to the tissue), a succession of sufficiently severe 
magneto-electric shocks. The fifth chapter treats of the intellect, 
and at the outset destroys the long-existent idea that thought 
may be conducted in a region of pure spirit, unassociated with 
anything material. This is disproved by the fact that thought 
exhausts the nervous system, just as bodily exercise exhausts 
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