118 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



health and cranial capacity, as determining factors of in- 

 tellectual capacity and sexual differences, far greater stress 

 has been laid on conclusions deducible from the relative 

 brain weights of different classes of people as well as of 

 different sexes. It was assumed that by a critical study 

 of the brain, by careful weighings of many brains of both 

 sexes and of many races, it would be easy to secure con- 

 clusive evidence that the size and weight of the brain in- 

 crease with the amount of intelligence of the individual. 

 It was also assumed that function not only makes the or- 

 gan, but also develops it. Brain became synonymous with 

 mind. A large brain implied vigor of thought; a small 

 brain was evidence of mental inferiority. 



Physiology had demonstrated unquestionably that the 

 muscles of the body are enlarged by exercise. It was 

 assumed by those who are wont to measure mind in terms 

 of matter that the brain, being the organ of thought, was 

 also developed by exercise. It was also assumed that the 

 development of the brain was in a direct ratio to its activ- 

 ity. The greater its activity the greater its mass, and the 

 greater the mass the greater the degree of intelligence. In 

 other words, it was assumed that there was an exact and 

 invariable proportion between weight of brain and amount 

 of brain power. 



None of the theories which have already been adverted to 

 have been so full of assumptions and prejudices or vitiated 

 by so many fallacies and over-hasty generalizations as this. 

 No subject has possessed a greater fascination for anthro- 

 pologists, and no subject has been prolific in more diverse 

 and conflicting conclusions. Many men of science who, in 

 other matters, were noted for their care in weighing evi- 

 dence, before formulating theories, completely lost the sci- 

 entific spirit when they began to weigh brains and to draw 

 conclusions respecting the relations of brain weight and 

 mental power, and to establish ratios between the charac- 



