■582 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



chronicled the case, was told that the man "had a good memory and was fond 

 of politics, but that he could neither read nor write." Whatever his potentiahties 

 might have been, " it is evident," says Dr. Morris, " that his actual acquirements^ 

 were not great." The non-development of superior mental power in such cases 

 may, however, be attributable not to lack of capacity for learning, but to the ab- 

 sence of the conditions necessary to its growth. Certain it is, that among the ed- 

 ucated and intelligent classes, the number of big brains is greater than with uned- 

 ucated and less intelHgent people. Among the latter the proportion of brain- 

 weights above fifty-five ounces has been ascertained to be only from four to six 

 per cent,' while the proportion among men who have been distinguished for great 

 intellectual acquirements, is at least twenty-three per cent. 



The brain-weights of only twenty-three such men are accurately known, and 

 it is from these that the above proportion has been obtained. With ■ few excep- 

 tions, these were all above the average capacity of forty-nine ounces. First in 

 this respect comes the celebrated naturalist Cuvier, with a brain-weight of sixty- 

 four and a half ounces, followed by the famous Scottish physician, Abercromby, 

 and the poet, Schiller, each with sixty-three. Goodsir, the anatomist, follows at 

 a considerable distance with fifty-seven and a half. Sir James Simpson with fifty- 

 four, and Chalmers with fifty-three. That such men as Gladstone, Bright, etc., 

 possess more than the average brain-weight may be inferred from a statement 

 lately made public of the size of hat worn by these and a number of other living 

 or recently deceased statesmen and literateurs. Premising that what is known 

 to the trade as size seven is that of the average head, with presumably forty-nine 

 ounces of brain, and that seven and three-eighths is a size so large as only to be made 

 when specially ordered, it appears that out of fourteen persons whose hat-sizes 

 are given, two (Lord Chelmsford and Dean Stanley) were below, while others 

 (Lord Beaconsfield and the Prince of Wales) were exactly up to the average. Of 

 the others, Dickens, Selborne, and Bright required seven and one-eighth; Earl 

 Russell, seven and one-fourth ; Lord Macaulay, Gladstone and Thackeray, seven 

 and one-eighth ; Louis PhiUppe, seven and three-fourths, and the Archbishop of 

 York, eight full. Of the twenty-three distinguished men already referred to 

 whose actual brain-weights are known, four, including the late Prof. Hughes 

 Bennet, and Hermann, the philologist, are distinctly below the average, showing, 

 as Dr. Bastian points out in a recent work, that "a well-constituted brain of 

 small dimensions may be capable of doing much better work than many a larger 

 organ whose internal constitution is, from one cause or other defective." When 

 there is no such defect, however, the big brain, there is every reason to believe, 

 confers an undoubted advantage on its owners. — Edinburgh Scotsman. 



