BRAIN AND INTELLECT.

Hokitika Guardian, 6 June 1925, Page 1

BRAIN AND INTELLECT.

AIT j< LAND. May 111. A (■oiuninu idea that weight <>l brain has .some connectiom willi the inlelJectualiiv of a Ilian, and that lids has jn.stificai ion, in lad. Dial the male hrain is generally larger and heavier than the female brain is brought uj» lor review l,v a recent cable that the hrain of the late Anatoli* I'ranee lias been lonnd to lie below iiormal in weight. Analnle Kranee admittedly was one of the most, brilliant writers of recent years. When interviewed on the cable, Dr T. w. .Johnston, who is a hrain specialist. eoninieiiLed Lliat lie was not surprised by the cabled information, as it was quite a common thine; to lind that men who have been celebrated for their intellect have small brains. ■ -I’m afraid that I cannot at all subscribe to the idea ihal large hrain denotes ere,at powers of thought,” ho added. " the ability to think is a function of only a very small part of the hrain. tailed the frontal lobe, and the weight ol' the brain, a- a whole never gives a cine to the sine of the Irolital lobe. Compared with other areas ol the hrain. the frontal lnhe of the hrain (indicated by the front part oi the head or forehead) is not. developed in animals, who vet sometimes have as lug a hrain as a mini, for the reason that seven-eights of the hrain is occupied in fain i inning purely lor purposes of carrying on the body, while the frontal luhe alone is concerned with higher consciousness or thought." “Absence of development in that portion of the hrain." stated Pr Johnston, "was ordinarily indicated hv a sloping forehead, as was seen in the a]K*. which the nearest approached intelligence of the lowest form of man. A sloping forehead was also seen in degenerates aiming men." Speaking generally. Dr Johnston remarked that it was very often found that a man, who takes a big hat is not a brainy man, and that frequently small headed men are brainy men. Anthropologists agreed that white races are the brainiest, hut they wore not noted for size of head. In the negro race a hig hrain with a small frontal lobe was very often found. The frontal lobe, ho explained, was composed of cells and a kind of amorphous substance that served as a framework for supporting the cells, and it was the number of cc-lls that developed that distinguished what was called a •brainy” man. A small-brained man might have developed an infinitely greater number of cells to the square centimeter in his frontal lobe than a big-brained man. and would I*o. consequently, a much more brilliant thinker. Intellectual men were distinguished by tiie large number of cells the had developed in their frontal lobe, and in others the eelh were less in nandier proportionatelv as thov had developed them or permitted them to remain atrophied in substance. The specialist supported the idea contained in American colloqualism, which desginates all brainy men as “ highbrows,”