NEW CONCEPTIONS IN SCIENCE 



Average human brain, 1400 (49 oz. avoirdupois). 



Dr. Dollinger . . . 1207 Agassiz . . . . 1512 



Harley 1238 Thackeray . . . 1644 



Gambetta .... 1294 Schiller .... 1781 



Liebig 1352 Cuvier 1829 



Bischoff 1452 Tourgenief . . . 2012 



Broca 1485 Byron 2238 



Gauss 1492 



It will be seen that Byron, who was commonly 

 supposed to have a small head, is highest on the 

 list; and whatever may be thought of his poetry, 

 he seems to have been a man of rather mediocre 

 intellectual attainments, as poets generally are; 

 while Baron Liebig, who possessed one of the best- 

 equipped brains of the last century, was below the 

 average. So, too, there is but a slight difference 

 in the average size of the male and female brain; 

 though the general inferiority of the latter was evi- 

 dent enough up to the latter part of the nineteenth 

 century. Directions for computing the size of your 

 own brain, if you are interested, ought to be found 

 in any good encyclopaedia, though they probably 

 are not. As the brain is so nearly all water, it is 

 evident that the figures for size, in cubic centi- 

 metres, express, with some rough approximation, 

 the weight in grams, and this may be quickly re- 

 duced to the ounces and pounds of our antiquated 

 system. 



In general, the size and weight of the brain varies 

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