A STUDY OF THE EELATIONS OF THE BRAIN TO 
THE SIZE OF THE HEAD. 
By REGINALD J. GLADSTONE, M.D. 
One of the main objects of the investigation which forms the subject of this 
paper, has been to obtain a series of reconstructi(jn formulu', by which it will be 
possible, when in possession of certain chief measurements of the head, to predict 
within the limits of normal variation, the approximate weight of the brain. 
The collection of data for this purpose, which has occupied a period of over 
three years, has been carried out with the permission of the Resident Medical 
Officer, in the 'post-mortem' room of the Middlesex Hospital, whereas the mathe- 
matical treatment, in the following paper, is chiefly the work of Mr J. Blakeman, 
M.Sc, of University College, London. 
Briefly, the method which we have adopted has been to measure the heads of 
' post-mortem ' room subjects, and afterwards in each case to take out the brain 
and weigh it. In each case, therefore, a comparison can be made between the out- 
aide measurements of the head, and the weight of the brain. 
The individuals measured have been a few presumably healthy subjects, who 
have died an accidental death ; the ordinary subjects of post-mortem examination 
at the Middlesex Hospital, London ; and a fairly large proportion of subjects who 
have died from malignant disease in the Cancer Department of the same Hospital. 
They may be regarded, therefore, as forming a fairly typical sample of what has 
been termed a 'hospital population'; containing, however, owing to the inclusion 
of ' cancer cases,' a rather larger proportion of individuals who have died from 
wasting diseases than is ordinary. A comparison, however, of the ratio that the 
brain-weight bears to the outside measurements of the head in a series of cases in 
which death took place from accident, or acute illness, with cases of death from 
wasting diseases, has shown that the diminution of brain-weight in the latter, 
although measurable, is small ; and that their inclusion, therefore, with the acute 
cases does not seriously affect the general result. 
Biometrika iv 14 
