C H A P T E R X.
Excerpta
PROM MORTON ’ S IN ED I T ED MA N U S C R I P T S .
[ A l th ough not in the mature shape in which Dr. Morton habitually
submitted his reflections to the scientific world, and destitute, alas!
of his own improvements, a contribution, so valuable to that study
of Man which owes its present momentum to his genius, must not be
overlooked in If Types of Mankind.” With their joint acknowledgments
to M r s . S .. G eo. M orton, for the unreserved use of whatever
autographs their much-honored friend intended for eventual publication,
the authors annex two fragmentary essays. Overcome by illness,
the Doctor withdrew from his library on the 6th of May, 1851;
leaving these, among other evidences of an enthusiasm for science
which death alone could stifle. The authors take the more pleasure
and pride in embodying such first rough-draughts, fresh as they flowed
from his mind — not unstudied, hut unadorned. Dr. Morton is here-
beheld in his office, writing down with characteristic simplicity, while
disturbed by professional interruptions, the results of his incessant
labor and meditation, couched in the language of truth.]
[ M ANU S C R I P T A .]
“ On the Size of the Brain in Various Races and Families of Man;
with Ethnological Remarks. By S am u e l G eorge M orton, M. D .:
Philadelphia and Edinburgh.”
The importance of the brain as the seat of the faculties of the
mind, is preeminent in the animal economy. Hence the avidity with
which its structure and functions have been studied in our time; for,
although much remains to be explained, much has certainly been accomplished.
We have reason to believe, not only that the brain is
the centre of the whole series of mental manifestations, hut that its
several parts are so many organs; each one of which performs its
peculiar and distinctive office. But the number, locality, and functions
of these several organs are far from being determined : nor
should this uncertainty surprise us, when we reflect on the slow and
devious process by which mankind have arrived at some of the simplest
physiological truths, and the difficulties that environ all inquiries
into the nature of the organic functions.
In studying ethnology, and especially in comparing the crania of
the several races, I was struck with the inadequacy of the methods in
use for determining the size and weight of the brain. On these
methods, which are four in number, I submit the following remarks:
1. The plan most frequently resorted to is that which measures the
exterior of the head or skull within various corresponding points.
We are thus enabled to compare the relative conformation in different
individuals, and in this manner obtain some idea of the relative size
of the brain itself. Such measurements possess a great value in cra-
niology, and, we need hardly add, are the only ones that are available
in the living man.
2. .The plan of weighing the brain has been extensively practised
in modern times, and with very instructive results. Haller found the
encephalon to vary, in adult men, from a pound and a half to more
than five pounds; and the Wenzels state the average of their'experiments
to range from about three pounds five ounces to three pounds
ten ounces.*
The experiments of the late Dr. John Sims, of London, which, from
their number and accuracy, deserve great attention, place the average
Weight of the recent brain, between three pounds eight and three
pounds ten ounces, or nearly the same weight as that obtained by the
Wenzels. Of 253 brains weighed by Dr. Sims, 191 were adults from
twnnty years old to seventy, and upwards; and of the whole series,
the lowest weighed two pounds, and the highest an ounce less than
four pounds, f
Prof. Tiedemann, of Heidelberg, a learned and accomplished anatomist,
has pursued the same mode of investigation. After giving
the weight of fifty-two European brains, he adds that
“ The weight of the brain in an adult European varies between three pounds two ounces
and four pounds six ounces Troy. The brain of men who have distinguished themselves
by their great talents are often very large. The brain of the celebrated Cuvier weighed
four pounds, eleven ounces, four drachms, thirty grains, Troy; and that of the distinguished
surgeon, Dupuytren, weighed four pounds ten ounces Troy. The brain of men endowed
with but feeble intellectual powers, is, on the contrary, often very small, particularly
in congenital idiotismus. The female brain is lighter than that of the male. It varies between
two pounds eight ounces and three pounds eleven ounces. I never found a female
brain that weighed four pounds. The female brain weighs, on an average, from four to
eight ounces less than that of the male; and this difference is already perceptible in a
new-born child.” J
* Medico-Chirurg. Trans., xix. p. 351.
J Trans, of the Royal Soc. of London.
f Idem, p. 259.