598 RELATIVE SIZE OF THE BRAIN 



phant weighs from 8 to 10 Ibs. I answer, that his 

 muscular power is far inferior to that of the horse, 

 ox, dog, wolf, deer, and other mammalia, in pro- 

 portion to their size. So that, notwithstanding the 

 absolute size of the brain is larger in the whale 

 and elephant than in man, it is very much smaller, 

 compared with the magnitude of the body, and its 

 superior frontal portions less perfectly developed. 

 The consequence of which is, that, in the range 

 of their intellectual faculties, they are as far in- 

 ferior to man as they are his superiors in mus- 

 cular power. And although the brain of the 

 canary, sparrow, and chaffinch, be larger, in pro- 

 portion to the size of the body, than in any other 

 animated beings with which we are acquainted, 

 its convolutions are much less numerous than in 

 man, and the intellectual portions less fully de- 

 veloped, compared with the inferior and posterior 

 compartments. But the muscular power of these 

 birds is not greater, in proportion to their weight, 

 than that of the pigeon, whose brain, compared 

 with the whole body, is in the ratio of 1 to 90 ; 

 while in man, the average ratio is as 1 to 40, (ex- 

 cepting idiots, in which it is often not much larger 

 than in infants, according to the measurements 

 of Tiedemann,) but varies with the different de- 

 grees of obesity, and diminishes with old age. 

 We are, therefore, authorized to conclude, that 

 the intelligence of animals is directly in proportion 

 to the developement of their nervous system, ceteris 



