Note 110 — Chapter II

Manouvrier has demonstrated (Dict. Phys., p. 688), working on three series of from 54 to 58 Frenchmen, that individuals of low stature have a lighter brain (1329 grammes) than those of high stature (1398 grammes); two series of women (23 and 27 individuals) yielded a similar result (1198 grammes for the low-statured, and 1218 for the tall). A series of 44 distinguished men of all nations and all statures gave a mean weight of 1430 grammes—that is to say, exceeding that of the French of high stature and the Scotch. From this may be drawn the conclusion that intelligence causes an increase in the weight of the brain independently of the stature. Here, by way of documents, are several data of this interesting series. The minimum of this series belongs to the anatomist Döllinger, who died at the age of seventy-one (1207 grammes), the maximum to the novelist Thackeray, who died at the age of fifty-three (1644 grammes). Between these two extremes are inserted, Harless (1238 grammes), Gambetta (1294 grammes), Liebig (1352 grammes), Bischoff (1452 grammes), Broca (1485 grammes), Gauss (1492 grammes), Agassiz (1512 grammes), and De Morny (1520 grammes), to mention only the best known names ranging between these extremes. M. Manouvrier has excluded from this series exceptionally heavy brains, like those of Schiller (1781 grammes), of Cuvier (1829 grammes), of Tourgenieff (2012 grammes), and lastly of Byron (2238 grammes).