502 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the smallest proportion, either to its own concomitant structures, or 

 to the rest of the body. The actual weight of a common codfish was 

 14,875 grains ; the brain weighed only 9-J grains ; thus making the 

 ratio of 1 to 1,565. In man, the average weight of the brain is about 

 3 pounds, the medium weight of the body 150 pounds, making a ratio 

 of 1 to 50. The above is a correct statement of the relative weight 

 of the brain to the body of the lowest of the type, the fish, and the 

 highest, man ; showing the ratio of the weight of the brain in man, 

 to that of the body, to be over 31 times greater than the same ratio 

 in the fish. But, if we estimate the proportionate weight of merely 

 the cerebral hemispheres, or the instruments of thought, to that of the 

 body in the fish and man, we obtain a difference of 124, which ex- 

 presses the number of times the cerebral hemispheres of man are 

 greater than those of the fish ; in other words, if the body of a fish 

 and that of man were of equal weight, the cerebral hemispheres of the 

 latter would weigh 124 times more than those of the former. Further, 

 the relative weight of the cerebral hemispheres, as we ascend from 

 the fish through the vertebrate sub-kingdom of animals, will be found 

 to correspond to the variation of the face-line from a parallel with 

 the dorsal surface. 



To recapitulate : 1. The size and weight of the brain will be 

 found to increase with the angle of the face to the axis of the body. 

 2. The expansion of the brain-case, with a proportionate diminution 

 of the facial bones, is an invariable accompaniment Of an increased 

 facial angle throughout the vertebrate sub-kingdom of animals. 3. 

 The mental manifestation and power have a direct relation to the 

 angle above indicated. 4. The position assumed by the body of the 

 animal in its change from the horizontal to the perpendicular attitude, 

 also very generally agrees with the facial angle of its subject. 5. The 

 projection of the jaws, in front of the ocular orbits, is also a correla- 

 tive index to the above data. 6. The relative ascendency of the two 

 factors, the physical and mental, with their numerous phenomena, is 

 an index to all of the above relations, and shows very conclusively the 

 gradual turning from the lowest instincts of the brute to the most 

 complex mental powers of man. 



4»+i 



DISPOSAL OF THE DEAD. 



By SIR HENEY THOMESON, 



PROFESSOR OF CLINICAL SURGERY IN UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, LONDON. 



AFTER Death ! The last faint breath had been noted, and an- 

 other watched for so long, but in vain. The body lies there, 

 pale and motionless, except only that the jaw sinks slowly but per- 

 ceptibly. The pallor visibly increases, becomes more leaden in hue, 



