120 WOMAN IN SCIENCE 



verse. If, for instance, it fail to receive the necessary 

 supply of blood, it will be inert or disordered and will 

 prove to be a dangerous possession rather than a precious 

 endowment. Epileptics usually have brains that are large 

 relatively to the size of the body. And, while it is probably 

 true that the great thinkers and men of action of the world 

 have, in most instances, had comparatively large brains, it 

 is also true that the brain weights of but few of them ex- 

 ceeded 1500 grams, while those of many fall below 1200 

 grams. 



Thus the brain of Gambetta, "the foremost Frenchman 

 of his time," weighed only 1159 grams, while the weight 

 of the brain of Napoleon I was 1502 grams barely equal 

 to that of a negro described by the anthropologist Broca, 

 and but little superior to that of a Hottentot mentioned 

 by Dr. Jeffries Wyman. 1 



The late Dr. Joseph Simms found the average brain 

 weight of sixty persons who were either imbeciles, idiots, 

 criminals or men of ordinary mind to be 1792 grams, while 

 that of sixty famous men was 1454 grams, a difference in 

 favor of men not noted for intellectual greatness of 338 

 grams. These figures are far from showing that large 

 brains are a necessary concomitant of mental capacity. 



In view of these and many similar facts, we are not 

 surprised that the eminent German anatomist and anthro- 

 pologist, Eudolph Wagner, should declare that ' ' very intel- 

 ligent men do not differ strikingly in brain weight from 

 less gifted men/' and that the noted French physician, 

 Esquirol, should assert that "no size or form of head or 

 brain is incident to idiocy or superior talent." 



So far as civilized races are concerned, there can be no 

 doubt that the absolute weight of the male is greater than 

 that of the female brain. According to the investigations 

 of seven of the most notable anthropologists, who have 

 given special attention to the subject under consideration, 



iL'Anthropologie, pp. 336-337, by Paul Topinard, Paris, 1876. 



