188 THE HOUSE I LIVE IN. 



appear to occupy only a small part of the head ? 

 I concluded that the human brain did not. 

 Some person, as ignorant as myself, told me 

 that my brains lay in my forehead ; and this 

 opinion I grew up with. But since I became 

 a man, I found out that they extend farther. 



The color and general appearance of the 

 human brain is not unlike those of domestic 

 animals, but it is a great deal larger. Man has 

 a larger brain, in proportion to his body, than 

 almost any other known animal. 



To give you a more accurate idea of its 

 exact size, however, just take a piece of twine 

 and tie it round your head from the bottom 

 of the eye-brows or edge of the forehead to 

 the nape of the neck, letting it come down 

 close behind the root of the ear. Now all 

 above this string, except the skull itself, and 

 the skin, flesh, hair, &c., is brain : and the 

 whole covering, bone, flesh, skin, &c., can 

 hardly be more than half an inch thick, in the 

 thickest part, and in some places scarce a 

 quarter of an inch thick ; so that there is a 

 very considerable quantity of the brain, as you 

 see. There is even a little brain below the 



