TABLE III

CRANIAL CAPACITY OF DISTINGUISHED MEN

Length.Breadth.Circumference.Estimated
Brain-Weight.
Dante———51.3
Robert the Bruce7.706.2522.25—
Burns8.005.9522.25—
Scott (head)9.006.4023.10—
Heinse—5.30—48.0
Bünger—5.00—49.8
Ugo Foscolo6.905.7020.5048.4

Some of the examples adduced in the above table appear to exhibit instances of mental endowment of high character, without the corresponding degree of cranial, and consequently cerebral development. The following table exhibits recorded examples of a series of actual brain-weights of distinguished men. It seems to lend confirmation to the idea that great manifestation of mental endowment is correlated, in the majority of observed cases, to a brain above the normal average in mass or weight. But even here intellect and brain-weight are not strictly in uniform ratio. Several of the following brain-weights, including that of Tiedemann, are furnished by Wagner, in the Vorstudien des Menschlichen Gehirns; but in an elaborate table of brain-weights given in the Morphologie und physiologie des Menschlichen gehirns als Seelenorgan, the brain of Byron is classed above all except Cuvier; while Vogt gives the same place, by estimate, to Schiller’s, as next in rank to that of the great naturalist among highly developed brains. Dr. Thurnam states his authorities for others, when producing them in his valuable contribution to the Journal of Mental Science “On the Weight of the Brain.” For that of Webster he refers to “the unsatisfactory article on the brain of Daniel Webster, Edin. Med. Surg. Journ., vol. lxxix. p. 355.” Dr. J. C. Nott, in his “Comparative Anatomy of Races” (Types of Mankind, p. 453), says: “Dr. Wyman, in his post-mortem examination of the famed Daniel Webster, found the internal capacity of the cranium to be 122 cubic inches, and in a private letter to me, he says: ‘The circumference was measured outside of the integuments before the scalp was removed, and may, perhaps, as there was much emaciation, be a little less than in health.’ It was 23¾ inches in circumference; and the Doctor states that it is well known there are several heads in Boston larger than Webster’s. I have myself, in the last few weeks, measured half a dozen heads as large and larger.” The circumference, it will be seen, exceeds the corresponding measurement of Scott’s head, taken under similar circumstances. But the statement of 122 cubic inches as the internal capacity of Webster’s skull seems open to question. If correct, instead of 53.5 oz. of brain-weight as stated in the following table, it is the equivalent of a brain-weight of fully 65 oz., or one in excess even of that, of Cuvier. The brain-weights of Goodsir, Simpson, and Agassiz, are given in the following table from the reported autopsy in each case:—