704 NERVOUS SYSTEM. 



Imbecile, aged 23 ; large stature (Lelut) 38-97 oz. 



Idiot, of the lowest degree of intelligence ; aged 46 ; medium stature (L61ut) 36*86 " 



Man, 46 years of age; idiocy very profound ; very large stature (Lelut) 36'15 " 



Man, 44 years of age ; idiocy very profound ; a little below medium stature (Lelut) 34'39 " 



In compiling the foregoing table, we have in every instance consulted the authentic 

 reports of the weights of the brain and have reduced them all to ounces av. with the 

 greatest care. This was found necessary, on account of the important variations in the 

 reports quoted by different physiological authors, especially as regards the brains of 

 Cuvier, "Webster, and Dupuytren. We believe that our figures are absolutely correct. 

 The weights of the brains of Cromwell and Byron are given, but there can be hardly any 

 question that the weights are grossly exaggerated. A careful study of the weights given in 

 this table shows the impossibility of applying to individuals an absolute rule that the great- 

 est brain-power is connected with the greatest amount of brain-substance. The men of 

 acknowledged intellectual ability in the table are, Cuvier, Abercrombie, Spurzheim, 

 Webster, Agassiz, Dupuytren, and those cited by Wagner as celebrated mathematicians, 

 professors, etc. A bricklayer, Cuvier, and Abercrombie stand at the head of the list, 

 as regards the weight of the brain ; but above Webster and Dupuytren, are Ruloff, Fisk, 

 two idiots, a boy thirteen years old, and a common laborer. Far down in the list, is a 

 celebrated mineralogist, whose brain is at least six ounces below the average. The 

 advanced age of the person referred to (seventy-seven years) would not account for the 

 small weight of the brain, although the weight is undoubtedly diminished in old persons. 

 We are not surprised, then, in the tables based upon observations of thousands of healthy 

 brains of men not remarkable for great intellect, to find many between fifty-five and sixty 

 ounces in weight. 



As the general result of all the observations upon the human subject, while we admit 

 that intellectual vigor is in general coincident with large development of the cerebral 

 hemispheres, there are certainly many striking exceptions to this rule when it is applied 

 to individuals. 



Location of the Faculty of Articulate Language in a Restricted Portion of the Ante- 

 rior Cerebral Lobes. Physiologists are often slow to accept important facts bearing directly 

 upon the functions of parts, drawn exclusively from pathology, especially when these 

 facts are not capable of demonstration by experiments upon the lower animals; and per- 

 haps this is due to a certain distrust of the accuracy of pathological researches as com- 

 pared with the exact results of well-executed experimental observations. As regards the 

 faculty of speech, however, our study must be confined to man, the only animal capable 

 of articulate language, and our data are drawn exclusively from pathology. Some physio- 

 logical writers are still disposed to regard the location of the faculty of speech as not 

 definitively settled; but, from a careful study of the pathology of aphasia, we are con- 

 vinced that there is no point in the physiology of the brain more exactly determined 

 than that the faculty of speech is located in a well-defined and restricted portion of the 

 anterior lobes. This is the more interesting and important, as it is the only sharply- 

 defined faculty that has been accurately located in a distinct portion of the brain. 



Aphasia is a pathological condition in which the subject is deprived, more or less 

 completely, of the power of language, spoken or written. This definition includes not 

 alone those cases in which patients are unable to express ideas by speech, but cases in 

 which the idea^of language is lost and there is agraphia, or inability to express ideas in 

 writing. Certain cases of this disease present loss of speech because the subject is inca- 

 pable of coordinating the muscles used in articulation. The patient has a clear idea of 

 language and of the meaning of words and is able to write perfectly well. In other 

 cases, the patient can neither speak nor express ideas in writing. In these, the idea of 

 language is lost. In both of these varieties of the disease, the difficulty is either in the 

 organ presiding over the faculty of speech or in the connections of this organ with the 



