February 27, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



345 



It is hardly to be expected that an entirely 

 new classification such as that proposed will 

 at once be universally adopted, but it is be- 

 lieved that as time goes on it will recommend 

 itself more and more to petrographers as a 

 quantitative system of classification, much 

 more precise and definite than any that has 

 been hitherto projjosed, and having the further 

 advantage of being based on thoroughly scien- 

 tific principles and capable of indefinite ex- 

 pansion, if necessary, to meet the growing 

 needs of the science. Frank D. Adams. 



McGiLL University, Montreal. 



Ueher das Hirnyewicht des Menschen. By F. 



Marchaxd. Abb. d. math.-phys. Classe d. 



Konigl. Sachsischen Ges. d. Wissensch., 



Bd. XXVIL, 1902, No. IV., pp. 393^82. 



Professor Marchand, of Marburg, has ac- 

 cumulated the largest number of human 

 brain-weights ever published, and in a large 

 series of tables, containing 1,169 cases, he 

 gives a thorough analysis of these data. Mar- 

 chand discusses the influences affecting the 

 weight of the brain, such as the cause of 

 death, bodily stature, sex and age. He finds 

 a notable increase in the brain-weight of 

 persons dying of diphtheria and other acute 

 diseases, owing, no doubt, to the hypersemia 

 and cedema of this organ. In new-born 

 children the average weight is 380 grams 

 for males and 353 grams for females. 

 Combining with these the infants less than 

 one week old, the averages are 371 grams 

 for males and 361 grams for females. These 

 weights are doubled by the end of the first 

 year, and tripled at the end of the third. 

 After the fifth year the increase in the weight 

 of the brain is more gradual. The figures 

 show that in most persons the maximum 

 brain-weight is attained at about the twentieth 

 year in males, the average being about 1,400 

 grams, and at about the seventeenth year 

 in females, the average being 1,275 grams. 

 The reduction of the average brain-weight due 

 to senile atrophy occurs in the eighth decade 

 in men and in the seventh decade in women. 

 The maximum absolute weight in Marehand's 

 series was 1,705 grams in a male. Many 

 high brain-weights were omitted from the 



tabulations on account of hydrocephalus, 

 brain-tumor, meningitis and other brain 

 afifections. Low brain-weights, less than 

 1,200 grams in males and less than 1,100 

 grams in females, constituted about five 

 and seven per cent., respectively, of all the 

 cases, usually in phthisical subjects or in 

 those dying of wasting diseases. The tables 

 show a certain relation existing between the 

 stature and brain-weight, but the ratio of 

 increase is a very inconstant one. Finally 

 JIarchand discusses the relation of the sexes 

 as to their brain-weight, and concludes that 

 the lesser weight of the brain in women is 

 not alone dependent upon her smaller stature, 

 for a comparison of both sexes of the same 

 stature shows the male brain to be invariably 

 the heavier. In the growing child, until a 

 stature of seventy centimeters is attained, the 

 brain-weight increases proportionately to the 

 increase in body-length, irrespective of age or 

 sex; thereafter, however, the male brain be- 

 gins to outstrip that of the female. Woman's 

 lesser brain-weight, like her lesser head-cir- 

 cumference, as compared with males of the 

 same stature, seems to be an expression of 

 the different organization of the female body. 



E. A. S." 



scrEyrific journals and articles. 



The Popular Science Monthly for February 

 has for frontispiece a portrait of Carroll D. 

 Wright, president of the American Associa- 

 tion. Asaph Hall has an article on ' The Sci- 

 ence of Astronomy,' in which attention is 

 called to the influence of science in promoting 

 harmony among nations. Bradley M. Davis 

 discusses ' The Evolution of Sex in Plants,' 

 as illustrated by the Algae. Alverton W. Price 

 shows ' The Economic Importance of Forestry,' 

 and Frederick A. Woods gives the seventh 

 of his papers on ' Mental and Moral Heredity 

 in Royalty,' this one dealing with the house of 

 Nassau and Brunswick. An account of ' The 

 Smithsonian Institution ' is reprinted from its 

 last report. Roger Mitchell discusses ' Jewish 

 Immigration,' showing that it presents a some- 

 what serious problem in New York. Wesley 

 Mills treats of ' The Behavior of Blind Ani- 

 mals,' adducing instances to show how great 



