MAN AND HIS BRAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22398, 20 October 1934, Page 18

MAN AND HIS BRAIN

ANATOMIST’S VIEWS “Man is heading post haste for extinction: his brain is killing him, ’ says Dr A. Watson, of Adelaide, distinguished professor of anatomy, of Adelaide University, and at one time dean of anatomy at Charing Cross Medical School, London. Professor Watson is a well-known world traveller and scientist. He served in the Boer War and in the Great War, and in 1920 retired with the title of emeritus professor. “ I do not mean that it is the size of man’s brain that is the trouble,” he said recently in Brisbane, “ because an aboriginal man may have a bigger brain than a white man. It is the quality and the use that is made of it that will cause the extincti n of the race. The sabre-tooth tiger developed tusk-like teeth that grew to an enormous size, and the Irish elk developed antlers that became too heavy for it to support. Just as these things caused the extinction of these animals, so will man’s brain cause the extinction of man! You have only to let the mind dwell on recent inventions to realise that we are travelling fast along the road to extinction. We cannot continue at the rate w« are going.” Discussing notable developments _in medical science in the last generation. Dr Watson said that the greatest of these was undoubtedly in the treatment* of ductless glands. Here, he said, was the field for therapeutics of the near future. Dr Voronoll had performed a great service to mankind in his discoveries. Asked if he knew of any successful cases of rejuvenation in Australia, Dr Watson said a Sydney doctor had treated several aged men with notable success. Another remarkable discovery, he said, was the value of eating liver for cases of pernicious ansemm. He himself had taken liver for breakfast that morning. Dr Watson had recently returned from a cruise of Northern Australia, and he brought back with him and handed over to the Brisbane Museum a rare fish. It was caught by the ship’s cook and weighed 251 b. It would have been cooked had not Dr Watson recognised it as a rare specimen—one of which the museums of London, New York. Melbourne, Sydney, and other_ cities of the world were without a specimen. He recognised it as belonging to the New Zealand kingfish family (Seriola grandis). It had a long pectoral fin and sawscalcs on both sides of the tail. Dr Watson has an alligator for the Melbourne Museum. While in the north he paid a visit to a pastoral property that has been owned by the Watson family since it was first taken up in the early days of land settlement.