Democratic Sentinel, Volume 14, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 December 1890 — SOMETHING ABOUT BRAINS. [ARTICLE]

SOMETHING ABOUT BRAINS.

Hern* Sant* American Monkey* Have Larger One* than Man. For a long time it was supposed that the relative weight of the brain, ae compared with" the body, was greater in man than in any of the lower animals; hut, alas for poor human nature! it is now known that some of the smaller South American monkeys have, proportionally, a larger share of brain than onr noble selves. On the other hand, however, man Carries (absolutely) more weight in his cranium than any other breathing creature, except the elephant and the whale. As a rule, the human brain increases in specific gravity np to the twentieth or twenty-first year, and from the “age of discretion* till the fortieth year usually remains in statu quo. After forty, the organ in most cases begins to wilt. It continue* to decrease in volume more rapidly ae we grow older, and In these who are unhappy enough to reach tljje seventh stage of “second childishness and’mere oblivion" there is nothing of it left worth mentioning. As a proof that the weight of the encephalic mass determines to ft consfoerable extent the amount of intellectual power, it may be stated that when the former is less than thirty-two ounces—-forty-nine ounces for the male and fortyfour for the female brain are’the average—idiocy or partial imbecility invariably accompanies the defect The heaviest brain on record is that of Cuvier, the great naturalist, which weighed sixty-four ounces.