SIZE OF THE BRAIN. 327 



found to vary according to the number and character of those and if 

 there be primary or fundamental faculties, each may be conceived to 

 have a special organ concerned in its production, as each of the exter- 

 nal senses has its organ. According to this view, the cerebral organi- 

 zation of animals ought to differ according to their psychology : where 

 one is simple, the other should be so likewise. This seems, so far as 

 we can observe, to be essentially the fact. " In the series of animals," 

 says M. Adelon, 1 "we observe the brain more complicated as the men- 

 tal sphere is more extensive ; and in this double respect a scale of gra- 

 dation may be formed from the lowest animals to man. If he has 

 the most extensive moral sphere, if he alone has elevated notions of 

 religion and morality, he also has the largest brain, and one composed 

 of more parts ; so that if the physiology of the brain were more ad- 

 vanced, we might be able, by comparing the brains of animals with his, 

 to detect the material condition, which constitutes humanity. If the 

 brain were not constructed a priori for a certain psychology, as the 

 digestive apparatus is for a certain alimentation ; and if the mental and 

 moral faculties were not as much innate as the other faculties, there 

 would be nothing absolute in legislation or morals. The brain and its 

 faculties are, however, in each animal species, in a ratio with the role, 

 which such species is called upon to play in the universe. If man is, 

 in this respect, in the first rank ; if he converts into the delicate affec- 

 tions of father, son, husband, and country, those brute instincts by 

 which the animal is attached to its young, its female, or kennel ; if, 

 in short, he possesses faculties which animals do not, religious and 

 moral feelings, with all those that constitute humanity, it is owing to 

 his having a more elevated vocation ; to his being not only king of the 

 universe, but destined for a future existence, and specially intended to 

 live in society. Hence it was necessary, that he should not only have 

 an intellect sufficiently extensive to make all nature more or less sub- 

 ject to him, but also a psychology such, that he might establish social 

 relations with his fellows. It was necessary, that he should have 

 notions of the just and the unjust, and be able to elevate himself to the 

 knowledge of God ; to those sublime feelings, which cause him so to 

 regulate his conduct as to maintain with facility his mortal connexions, 

 and deserve the future life to which he is called." 



But if the intellectual sphere be regulated by the cerebral develope- 

 ment, can we not, it has been asked, estimate the connexion between 

 them ? And if there be different primary cerebral faculties, each of 

 which must have an organ concerned in its production, can we not 

 point out such organ in the brain ? Several investigations of this cha- 

 racter have been attempted, with more or less success: generally, 

 however, they have added but little to our positive knowledge, and this, 

 principally, from the intricacy of the subject. Until of late years, 

 attention was chiefly paid to the mass and size of the encephalon; and 

 it was, at one time, asserted that the larger it is, in any species or in- 

 dividual, the greater the intellect. Man, however, has not absolutely 

 the largest encephalon, although he is unquestionably the most intelli- 

 gent of beings. The weight of the encephalon of a child six years of 



1 Art. Encephale, in Diet, de Med., vii. 526 ; and Physiologie de THomme, edit, cit., i. 524. 



