Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1884 — Size of the Brain in Animals. [ARTICLE]

Size of the Brain in Animals.

Among animals we find a still greater increase in the weight of the brain as compared with that of the body. Leuret found it to range in the monkeys from as 1 to 22, 24 and 25; in the dolphin it was as Ito 36; in the cat as Ito 94; in the rat as 1 to 130; in the fox as 1 to 205; in the dog as Ito 305: m the sheep as Ito 351; in the horse as Ito 700; and in the ox as 1 to 750. The mean for the class of mammals, exclusive of man, was as Ito 186. My own observations accord very closely with those of Leuret. I found that in the prairie wolf the proportion between the brain and the body was as Ito 220; in the wildcat as 1 to 158; and in the rat as 1 to 132. If these figures teach anything at all, it is that there is no definite relation existing between the intelligence of animals and the absolute or relative size pf the brain. It is true that, taking the data collected by Leuret as the basis, there is a well-defined relation between the mental development and the brain, as regards the several classes of vertebrate animals; for in fishes, the lowest, the brain is but l-5668th part of the body; in reptiles, the next highest, it is l-13215t part; in birds, next in the ascending scale, it is l-2l2th part; and in mammals, the highest of all, l-186th part. There is, therefore, beginning with the' lowest class, a regular ascent in the volume of the brain till it rea -hes the maximum in mammals.— Dr. Hammond, in Popular Science Monthly. Sunday School Item. “ Johnny, what would you do if yon. were to see a bad boy stealing some fruit," asked an Austin Sunday school teacher of the best boy in the class; “would you not tell him he was doing wrong?” “Yes, indeed, I would, and if he didn’t make a fair divide, I’d tell the’ storekeeper. ” — Texas S if ting s.