TO RELATIVE CAPACITY OF RACES. 



211 



TABLE V. 



MAXIMUM BRAIN-WEIGHTS — ST. MAEYLEBONE. 



The stature, or relative size of body, has already been referred to 

 as an element in testing the comparative male and female weight of 

 brain ; and it is one which ought not to be overlooked in estimating 

 the comparative size and weight of the braias of distinguished men. 

 From my own recollections of Dr. Chalmers, who was of moderate 

 stature, his head appeared proportionally large. The same was notice- 

 able in the cases of Lord Jeffrey, Lord Macaulay, Sir James Y. 

 Simpson, and very markedly so in that of De Quincey. The philo- 

 sopher Kant was also of small stature; and Dr. Thurnam refers to the 

 observation of Carus that he had a head not absolutely large, though,. 

 in proportion to the small and puny body of that eminent thinker,, 

 it was of remarkable size. Among the large-brained artizans of the 

 Marylebone Infirmary, on the contraiy, the probabilities are in favour 

 of a majority of them being men of full muscular development and 

 ample stature. Nevertheless, with every allowance for this, it still 

 remains probable, if not demonstrable, that from the same humble 

 and unnoted class, examples of megalocephaly could be selected little 

 short in cerebral mass, and apparently in brain-weight, of the gi'oup 

 of men whose large brains are recognized as the concomitants of 

 exceptionally great mental capacity and intellectual vigour. Unless, 

 therefore, we are contented to accept the poet's dictum, " Their lot 

 forbad,"* and assume that "chill penury repressed their noble rage, and. 



^Gray's "Elegy." 



