Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 September 1910 — Weight of the Brain. [ARTICLE]

Weight of the Brain.

Prof. Frederick W. Mott, lecturing before the Royal Institution of Great Britain on ‘‘The Brain,” said that although in 88 per cent, of the cases in which the brains of great men had been weighed the weight was above the average, brain weight itself did not always mean brain quality. When there was lack of the functionating tissue, the lecturer explained, the structural material might receive more than its normal share of nourishment and the extra weight be due to overgrowth of “brain scaffolding.” This accounted for the very large and heavy brains sometimes found in congenital idiots. Pointing out that the brain weight of a race long civilized surpassed that of aborigines, the lecturer stated that whereas the ordinary European hospital patient had a heavier .brain than a savage, the Chinese coolie laborer’s brain, developed by centuries of use, weighed 114 ounces more than that of the European hospital patient. Referring to the relative brain weights of Caucasian men and women, Prof. Mott said that the female brain had a good start, weighing nearly 1% ounces more than the male brain at birth. In adult life, however, the average man’s brain weighed about 5% ounces more than the woman’s. The average weight of the European male brain was 2 pounds 15 ounces 9 drams to 2 pounds 16 ounces 9 drams and of the female brain 2 pounds 10 ounces 11 drams to 2 pounds 10 ounces 14 drams. Among savages there was not this difference since in the struggle for existence the female had to apply her .brain as fully as the male, hence U has developed at practically the same rate. —London Globe.