ABOUT BRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 148, 23 June 1923, Page 8

ABOUT BRAINS

STRICTURES ON THE

LABOURER

NEW NAME FOR TRADE UNIONS

(mOU OUR OWN CORRB6PONDIHT.)

LONDON, 4th May.

"Brains" was the subject of an interesting and useful lecture delivered the other day by Sir James Cantlie (College of Ambulance) in his irresistibly breezy Scottish way. His informition was enlivened by cheerful anecdote" and wholesome advice. To the inquiry: Where are your brains? Many people-re-plied: "Up in the head somewhere," and that'? all they knew. Oft-heard ex pressions were: "He's got brains!" and "He's got a head on him!" There were tliinge that had head and no brains—like r.ails—so a head did not always imply the presence of brains in the sense oi his remarks. .

Describing the skull, Sir James'showed _ how the largest part of the brain was to be found at th« back of the head—not in the front of it, as phrenologists would have one believe. The "bumps" on the forehead which phrenologists described as indicating prowess; in various arts were nothing more than air cells; if an incision wc^' to be Bade 'there by a surgeon nothing at. all would be found. Therefore, he said, don't spend your money on phrenology. And don't go to palmists. These people made a great deal about the mysterious importance of what they called '"'the line of life"—well, of course, it indicated the direction of a big artery, and if it happened to be cut the man would die. So, therefore, it was important, but it dib not need a- palmist to tell anyone that. Don't spend money on palmists and phrenologists. Sir James supposed that all his hearers had visited on© or the other of these people, but, of course; no one would have the courage to say ao people always kept such visits dark. Indicating th-a position of the brain af) the back of the head the lecturer asked : "Why do you turn your face to tlwl enemy? Because a blow on the eye is tno safest place in the whole body where you can ba hit. So you see it is not bravery which makes you turn your face to the' foe, but Nature simply trying to preserve the race, a blow on the eyo or the temple would not hurt the brain, hut a penetrating blow on the back of the head would." There was one frontai knock-out .blow that could be given by a boxer, and that was a ~low on the! chin, which might easily cause the lower jaw to force its way through a thin part of the cranium and penetrate tha brain.

"FOR GOODNESS' SAKE, DON'T!'

Sir James mentioned that the frontai region in the skull of a man contained many air spaces that were not to\ be found in the skul] of a woman. The mat; with the bass voice had many more defined air-cells furrows on his brow than had the baritone, while the tenor was nearly, smooth. "The women of to-day, 1' he said, "are trying to imitate men. For goodness' sake, don't do that. It is a very poor example to follow. A woman's brain works in flashes, a man's brain never flashes—it ie far too slow to do that." , THE SLACKERS' PROTECTION SOCIETY. The brain worker, the person who is responsible for running' a big business organisation, or the person who is planning and initiating, expends far more of the vital principles of his body in half an hour's work than a man engaged in muscular exercises does 'in a day. The ploughman and the labourer, when they really do work, do not expend their vitality like the man at the jttead of affairs, who loses his strength from his mental exertions. "The labourer oi to-day," he i-emarked, "is not worth the name. He does not during his work" do enough exercise to 'keep himself in health; therefore, we are raising, all ov«r the country, gymnasia so that the working man may exercise himself after his day's work. To-day the labourer is not worthy of his hire. The Slackers' Protection Society is what I call th« trade unions. If you call them that long enough the trade unions will all be dead in six months, because if you make fun of them they will die a natural death. The labourer is doing nothing in comparison with the man at the head of affairs, or compared with the labourers of bygone years. In the days of our forefathers the labourer was a man of fine physique and strength and splendid health, but if the present state of affairs continues the working man, physically, will gradually disappear, and then England may look out for itself. And as well as other things, we are giving the workmen doles.

According to whether the brain waß exercised so its growth depended—the size of the brain, was regulated by the amount of exercise it had. . People with the largest brains in the world were the Chinese, who for the laat 5000 years had been able to read, write, and count— for all those years the teeming- millions of Chinese people had been educated. The next largest braip. was found on the borders between England and Scotland. In reply to the demand, "which side of the border?" Sir James indicated the Scottish side. In his country the people had 1, had education since the time of John Knox: in England the Education Act was not much more than fifty years old. Therefore, Scottish people had thb second largest brains in the world. A WONDERFUL INVENTION. During the afternoon an armless man, with only one eye, demonstrated a new machine, the invention of an Edinburgh gas engineer. This clever d6vice is worked with the feet like the treadles' of a sewing machine, and with its aicf a man so incapacitated can do practically everything that one. sound, in all his limbs can do. The man at© a meal, which included soup, meat, and an egg from which he himself removed thtS shell; he handled a cup of tea, lit a ciga^ rette, washed and dried his face, typed and folded a letter, put it in the envelope, and stamped and fastened it, and he turned over the leaves of a large ledger as fast as any bank clerk. To the main device, which is screwed to the' table, all the varying contrivances aro attached by the man himself, working all the time with his feet. The only thing the man cannot do is to dress himself. The ingenious invention of : the gas-labourer was given as a special illustration- of a workman's inventive brain. READY BETORT. After the lecture a lady went on to the platform and said she must be a cousin of Sir James, but why was her name spelled "Cantly" and his "Cantlie" ? "Well," was the ready response, "Once upon a time the Scots didn't know how to spell, but the meaning is just the same in both—it simply means, we 'can't lie.' " THE SIN OP. WORK. Apropos of Sir James's -remarks about the labourer of the present day, it seems that apparently the greatest crime a trade unionist can commit is to show an interest in his work. Because a! foundryman at Rochester stayed threequarters of an hour after closing time 1 to finish his job, the National Union oi Foundry Workere fined him, and, in pursuit of the quarrel, not. only iw»ellwl him (rain the unwji, but jjrewnisg &i#'

joining any other. Even when the unfortunate man, beaten by fchia tyranny, made his submission, the union passed on him what Mr. Justice Coleridge has called a sentence of industrial death. They; did their best to prevent him evei earning his living. "To kill the spirit Of industry is the deliberate aim of a widespread type of trade unionist officiaJ, _ says the "Pall Mali Gazette." Foreign observers have described the British trade unionist as 'the laziest white man in the world.' If he does notbecome so it is certainly not the fault, of organisations like the National Uniori of Foundry Workers."