Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 9.djvu/274

 Brain-Weight and Mental Power.—Great weight of brain is commonly regarded as evidence of great cerebral power. That this conclusion, however, is erroneous, is shown by Dr. Robert Lawson, who, in the Lancet, compares the brain-weights of some of the great men of modern times with the brain-weights of lunatics who died in the West Riding Asylum. He gives the following instructive table:

It will be observed that only Abercrombie and Cuvier surpass in weight of brain the inmates of the asylum. One of these lunatics, he whose brain weighed 61 ounces, was seventy-one years of age when he died; when he was forty-five, his brain probably weighed not less than 64 ounces, thus equaling in weight the brain of the great Cuvier, and exceeding that of Daniel Webster by 20 per cent. From all this it follows that great weight of brain is not in itself a conclusive evidence of great intellect.

From this comparison of brain-weights, Dr. Lawson passes to the consideration of the relations between genius and insanity. "Every day," he says, "the observation of the poet, that great wit is nearly allied to madness, gains a wider and more practical acceptance. So much is this the case that Dr. Wilks ventures to make the statement that it is probably the insane element which imparts what we call genius to the human race, the true celestial fire. And though it is fearful to think of the propagation of a race tainted with insanity, yet it does not follow that an infusion of the insane blood may not be desirable. Dr. Maudsley holds the same opinion."

Preservation of Zoölogical Specimens.—Last summer, Profs. Verrill and Rice, of Yale College, made a number of experiments to ascertain the effects of various chemical preparations upon marine invertebrates, the objects being to improve existing methods of preserving specimens and to ascertain the best means of killing in an expanded state species which ordinarily contract very much when put directly into alcohol. The results are given in the American Journal of Science, by Prof. Verrill, who says that several very fine preparations of Actiniæ in a state of nearly perfect expansion were made by slowly adding a concentrated solution of picric acid to a small quantity of seawater in which they had been allowed to expand. When fairly dead, they were transferred to a pure saturated solution of the acid, and allowed to remain from one to three hours. They were then placed in alcohol for permanent preservation. The alcohol should be renewed after a day or two, and this should be repeated until all the water has been absorbed from the specimen. Hydroids and most kinds of jelly-fishes can be easily preserved in the same way. Even delicate Ctenophoræ can be thus preserved so as to make fair specimens. The experiments were made with the view of finding some poison that will kill mollusks, especially gasteropods, in a fully-extended state, but the results were negative; at least no method was discovered that is more generally successful than that of allowing them to suffocate in stale sea-water, through excess of carbonic acid and deficiency of oxygen.

Improvement of the Steam-Engine.—In giving testimony before the Government Commissioners on the Advancement of Science in Great Britain, Mr. Anderson, superintendent of machinery at Woolwich, spoke of Joule's experiments on the conservation of energy as of immense value and as being an example of what government should do for the common good. Joule had made engineers thoroughly dissatisfied with their present knowledge as to what they can do with steam. "I believe," he continued, "that what Joule did will do more for this country than even what James Watt did. The part that James Walt took was very great, and the world gives him full credit for it; but the world is scarcely willing to give credit to Joule. Engineers know that the best steam-engine is not doing one-sixth of the work which it ought to do and can do. That is a sad state of matters to be in when we know that we are so far wrong, but yet no one will go to the trouble of going to the end of the question so as to improve the steam-engine as it might be done."