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• KNOWLEDGE • 



[April 17, 1885. 



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INTELLECT AND THE SIZE OF TEE BRAIN. 



[1668]— I have only just read " Mr. A. F. Osborne's " (1625) 

 letter of March 6 (weekly) Kn'owlepge, in reply to '' Mr. Jones's " 

 first letter (14i4). He seems to dwell so very emphatically npon 

 the theory that weight of brain proves superiority of intellect, 

 and does not seem aware that, though this may be accepted in a 

 2;eneral way, it is by no means a proved fact amongst scientific 

 people who have been able to examine into the matter with 

 some thoronghness. It is not an easy thing to have 

 the chance of opening the heads of a number of men 

 of known different capacity intellectnally, and of weighing 

 their brains. It may, therefore, interest your readers, and also 

 ■'Mr. Osborne," to hear what was told me personally by a dis- 

 tinguished German doctor, who went with a very famous German 

 professor, whose name has unfortunately missed my memory, 

 through the Franco-German war with the avowed purpose of 

 -examining into this theory, and with the hope of acquiring some 

 positive data on which to rest the theory for the future. 



They were a large party, including several doctors and a number 

 of medical students. Their chief care was, of course, the wounded, 

 but the examination of heads, or rather of the brains contained in 

 them, was a great object of interest to all of them. It would 

 render my letter too prolix were I to enter into all the particulars 

 and instances entered into by my friend Dr. S. to me, but suffice it 

 to say that they found the theory quite as much upset as confirmed. 

 The heaviest brain that they weighed in the course of their expe- 

 riments belonged to a fine young Prussian Uhlan, a great favourite 

 in his regiment — handsome, big, good-natured, but remarkably 

 stupid, so much so that, though much liked, he was frequently the 

 butt of the regiment. 



They found that many of the brains of the uneducated French 

 and German privates were heavier than those of the distinguished 

 officers in both nations killed during the war. Again ; he said 

 .some cases carried out the theory, as many heads examined, 

 belonging to officers known as talented, contained over the average 

 weight of brain, and the reverse again in' those known to be 

 feeble in intellect. Finally, the Professor himself died of enteric 

 fever in hospital, leaving, as his last bequest to his medical friends, 

 his head ! 



His brain was weighed, and found only to be of average weight. 

 I could tell you more, but fear I have already trespassed too long 

 upon your space, and will only remark that even if the brain of 

 womankind does not possess the weight of man's, according to the 

 practical evidence of these German doctors, it has not a great sig- 

 nification ; and Mr. Osborne's observations seem to imply that all 

 women's brains average less than all men's, whereas, on the con- 

 trary, it is known that even in parts of England the average weight 

 of women's brain is higher than the average weight of the men's 

 in other parts of England. And, certainly, there are plenty of 

 women to be met with every day now, whose intellectual capacity 

 far exceeds that of numbers of men to be met with every day 

 jsqually. H. Taunton. 



DOES A CENTRAL SUN EXIST ? 



[1669] — The article on the orbit of the sun in your valued 

 journal, April 3, so clearly proves that there cannot be a centre 

 round which the sun and stars revolve in the uni%'erse, that per- 



haps your readers will be interested in what German scientists 

 think on this matter. A very strong opinion on it is expressed by 

 Dr. Biichner in "Force and Matter," page 96. He says: "The 

 distances of the celestial bodies are so immense that our intellect 

 wanders at the contemplation of them, and becomes con- 

 fused. Light moving with a velocity of millions of miles in a 

 minute required no less than two thousand years to reach the 

 earth from the galaxy ! And the large telescope of Lord Rosse has 

 disclosed stars so distant from us that their light must have tra- 

 velled thirty millions of years before it reached the earth. But 

 a single observation must convince us that these stars are not 

 the limit of space. All bodies obey the law of gravitation, and 

 attract each other. In assuming now a limitation, the attraction 

 must tend towards an imagined centre of gravity, and the conse- 

 quence would be the conglomeration of all matter in one celestial 

 body. However great the distances may be, such a union must 

 happen ; but as it does not happen, although the world exists from 

 eternity, there can be no attraction tolvards a common centre, &c." 

 F. W. H. 



A LARGE METEOR. 



[1G70] — A meteor of unusual size was seen hero [Clifton] at 

 8h. 20m. on the night of the third of this month. It travelled slowly 

 through the constellation of Leo, with sufficient light to throw 

 distinct shadows, and, before disappearing, separated into two 

 without any signs of explosion. Stab-Gazee. 



INSCRIBED MONOLITH. 



Fig. 2. 



[1671] — There is a stone 

 stands in this neighbourhood 

 (Newtyle), on the top of a 

 mound or tumulus, the appear- 

 ance of which is roughly shown 

 in illustration (Fig. 1). Its 

 size, from A to B, is about 

 2i ft., and from B to C about 

 6 ft. It is stuck into the ground 

 between two socket-stones in 

 the way indicated in Fig. 2, 

 the upright pillar being at x . 

 The pillar is a hard basalt, and 

 the markings are indistinct, 

 and the only ones I can trace 

 are as above. The other side 

 of the stone is rough, and has 

 no markings, apparently. Can 

 any one tell what these mark- 

 ings are ? Are they the cnp 

 markings we read about some- 

 times ? Thomas Black. 



BUBBLES IN A BATH, &c. 



[1672] — The phenomenon of the disengagement of gas from the 

 surface of the body after a few minutes' immersion in a warm bath, 

 described by Mr. W. Mattieu Williams in Knowledge of March 20, 

 can be accounted for in a very simple manner. 



The gas is simply atmospheric air brought into the bath by the 

 bather. The human skin has a natural coating of oil, which repels 

 water. Consequently, when a man enters a bath the water does not 

 immediately come into intimate contact with his skin. Innumerable 

 small globules of ,air adhere to the skin, as may be seen by any 

 one who will thrust his arm into a deep glass vessel containing 

 water. 



Moreover, a man in a bath may be likened to a boat capsized, 

 and a considerable quantity of air will be enclosed in the groove 

 which extends along the spine from the shoulders downwards. The 

 heat of the bath soon causes the imprisoned air to expand and 

 escape and give rise to the appearance described by Mr. Williams. 



In the same article Mr. Williams asks, " How is the temperature 

 of the body kept down when it is surrounded with an atmosphere 

 saturated with vapour, and considerably above blood heat ? " 



I think the answer is : Because the body is a bad conductor, and 

 the surrounding vapour is not a very good one. The body being 

 colder than the vapour will condense some of the latter, so that 

 then the body will be coated with a film of water not so hot as the 

 surrounding vapour. I have no doubt, however, that if the experi- 

 ment were carried on for a sufficient length of time, the tempera- 

 ture would rise. But before the temperature could rise one or two 

 degrees, I fancy the experimenter would like to have a little fresh 

 air to breathe. B. D. Y. 



