BRAIN WEIGHT AND INTELLIGENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 182, 23 July 1900, Page 4

BRAIN WEIGHT AND INTELLIGENCE.

Is the Nineteenth Century Mr. Alexander Sutherland has an article entitled "Woman's BraiD," but with all due (deference to the author we think that the heading we have given to this summary is more descriptive of its scope of inquiry. Mr. Sutherland points out that as the result of recent investigations, it is proved that the average man has from 10 to 12 per cent more brain weight than .the average woman; but in proportion to the weight of her body woman has 6 per cent moro brain than man has. Her average runs about - 50oz of brain for every pound of weight in her body, while man in proportion to his body has only '47oz. But smaller animals always have bigger brains in proportion than larger animals. A terrier has six times as much brain in proportion to his weight as a Newfoundland dog, and a baby has in proportion to its weight five times as much brain as its father. Mr. Sutherland mentions many curious methods of comparison, one of the oldest of which is to compare the weight of the brain to that of the thigh-bone. He himself has been making many experiments on the brains of fishes and birds, and he finds that in the case of fish the surface of the brain is in proportion to the length of the individual. As we rise in the scale, the size of the brain grows less and less, depending on the size of the animal. But, on the whole, he says that" however or wherever we make the inquiry, it is always seen that when men and women are of equal height and equal weight, the men have something like 10 per cent more brain than the women." The average brain of a man of genius is only 9-3 per cent more than that of the ordinary individual—that is to say, the average woman is to the average man as the average man is to the man of genius, if the weight of brains were to settle it. Lest the average male should be inclined to vaunt himself unduly over his sisters, Mr. Sutherland tells us that " even if it should be demonstrated that the average woman, because she had 10 per cent less brain weight had therefore 10 per cent less intellectual capacity that the average man, it still has to be remembered that even then 90 per cent of the women are the equals of 90 per cent of the men,, and this would seem to imply that the average man has to recognise about 40 per cent of the women as being his superiors in intellect."