Chap. XX.] OF THE HUMAN BRAIN. 863 



careful tabular analysis made b}- him of the brain-weights 

 recorded by Sims, Clendinniug, Tiedemann and Reid. 

 Having rejected from his table all those cases in which 

 cerebral disease is reputed to have existed, Dr. Sharpey 

 says : — 



" According to tbis table the maximum weight of the adult male 

 brain in a series of 278 cases was 65 oz. ; and the minimum weight 

 34 oz. In a series of 191 cases the maximum weight in the adult 

 female was o6 oz. ; and the minimum 31 oz. ; the difference between 

 the extreme weights in the male subject being no less than 31 oz., and 

 in the female 25 oz. The weight of the adult male brain appears, 

 therefore, to be subject to a wider range of variety than that of the 

 female. By grouping the cases together in the manner indicated 

 by brackets, it is found that in a very large proportion the weight 

 of the male brain ranges between 46 oz. and 53 oz., and that of the 

 female brain between 41 oz. and 47 oz. The prevailing weights of 

 the adult male and female brain may therefore be said to range 

 between those terms ; and by taking the mean an average weight 

 is deduced of 49^ oz. for the male, and of 44 oz. for the female 

 brain, — results which correspond closely with the statements gene- 

 rally received. . . . The general superiority in absolute weight 

 of the male over the female brain is shown by Table 2 to exist at 

 every period of life. In new-born infants the brain was found by 

 Tiedemann to weigh 14^ oz. to 15| oz. in the male, and 10 oz. to 

 13^ oz. in the female." 



{a) — Some of the Conditions coinciding wnh low Brain- 

 IV eights : — The average brain-weight of persons dying in 

 Lunatic Asylums has been found to be distinctly lower 

 than that of persons of the same class who are not 

 insane. Some of this diminution of the average brain- 

 weight among the insane generally, is doubtless due, as 

 Thurnam suggests, to partial atrophy of the convolu- 

 tions ; though some of it may also be attributable to initial 

 smallness of brain in certain of the representatives of this 

 asylum class. But, as the same writer remarks, — " The 

 average brain-weight of those dying in asylums is made 



