New Britain Herald Newspaper, February 19, 1926, Page 27

l)]-l ATRATREUR MacDONALD s measuring and tabu- l:nml,,' the brain capace ily of Rn']\n'fit'm;\- tives, and he 1s chiefly interested in the dimunsiuns (&} ’ con- gx'easiunal heads. /fo‘w Applying the Tape Measure to Our Brain Size and Mental Capacity, much BKAIN has a National Legislators, Dr. Arthur MacDonald Hopes to Gauge Relationship Between and Determine Whether of Head and Thus Gain New Knowledge for Anthropological By Nell Ray Clarke AHE members of Congress typical * American men in their prime? Could their composite physical measure- ments be used as a yardstick by which to judge the average, everyday prosper- ous American? Are you a better man than the average Congressman—mean- ing a better man physically, of course? Is the Congressman’s brain heavier than that of the average individual and, if #0, does that indicate that his mentality is higher? These are a few of the things which Dr. Arthur MacDonald, of Washington, D. C, is trying to find out. He thinks that the Congressmen are a fine lot of men. Most of them are well and healthy, above the average in mentalidy, and are prosperous to hoot. Since they are representatives of the people selected by the people themselves from every part of the country, they should, taken as a whole, form excellent standard by which to measurc the average Amer- ican. We have, heretofore, points out Dr. MacDonald, compiled figur on the 4,000,000 soldiers of the United States during the World War, but they were young fellows. We have never had any available figures on men in their prime, nor has any other country of the world, for that matter, compiled anthropo- logical and physiological data on such a representative body of its citizens, Dr. MacDonald is chiefly interested in the head measu nts of Congressmen ~how long are their heads, how broad are their heads and how high are their heads? Incidentally, length of head, from the anthropologist's standpoint, means the me: ment from the fore- head in a straight line through the skull to the farthest point on the back of the head. When he gets these measuremonts, he can tell each Congr mately how muct he emphasizes weight will giv indication of how much mind he t least according fon- he brain, or skull, and ca- pacity of the mind of man is a moot question. The elephant, for instance, has five times as much brain as man, but we don ve him credit for doing much thinking. the capaci \\YIH‘.T\' all the measurements have been taken and tabulated, Dr. M Donald hopes to be able to dra conclusions concerning the relationship between the two. A number of Washington physicians have promised their support to Dr. Mac- Donald’s p! t. Some prominent medi- cal men have consented to give the Con- gressmen complete physical examina- tions free of charge. When the a individual pays a prominent diagnosti- cian some enormous sum to listen to his heart tick and his lungs wheeze and to jab a light in his eyesockets to ex- amine his sinuses, all he hears about himself is a few muttered figures to a painfully efficient stenographer and a series of grunts from the physician. But complete reports on all these items concerning the congressional sub- jects will be turned over to Dr. Mac- Donald for study in order that he may be in a position to de- duce some results from the composite figures. When the ordinary physician gets through with the Congressman, the nerve specialist takes him over, and finds out what makes him jumpy at times and what kind of inhibitions and obsessions he s suffering from. Of course, it is up to Congressman to say whether all his physical and mental secrets are going to be probed and put down on paper for the sake of the future of the sci- ence of anthropol Names are to be kept dead secrets, and no data concerning any one individual is going to be given out to the public. T SOUNDS like a grand scheme and, if it goes through, we ought to know what is a prosperous American. There are a few stumbling blocks, however, for the scienti after they get the consent of individual C men for the ex. they 't weigh Congressman is still ali To get around A MacDonald has worked out matical formula by which he c: late the weight of the brai rements of the head. He t quite as accurate ¢ mer, who can foretell the minute and second of an eclipse, but his formula is so nearly correct that in numbers of cases where he has of the b actually weighed the brain af been removed from the found that h timate made mula was virtually never m grams different from the rea Y re curious to know your brain weighs, vourself, or better still, get Donald to do it for you It is simple: Measure length, head breadth and hea millimeters. Subtract ten from three figures and the them te v, and multiply the by .000337. To the product, ac which will give the cranial cubic centimeters. If this multiplied by .9, you will have weight of your br: The ten subt ed from the head di mensions represents the average thick- ness of the skull in millimeters—a com- posite figure arrived at from scores of measurements For instance, the head of one woman of supposedly mature judgme was 140 millimeters broad, 183 milli- meters long and 136 millimeters high. Subtracting ten from each of these fig ures, and multiplying the result, we have 2,833,740. Multiplying that result by .000337, we have 954.97. Adding to that figure 406.01, we get 1224.88 grams —the weight of her brain. In speaking of his work, Dr. Mac- Donald says: “The term anthropo- Research In the etching is shown the relative size of the head of the most intelligent of all brute creation compared with Intelligence Varies With Shape the brain of a man logical psychiatry is a new one other languages as well as in Eng! In using this new term my p se to apply those facts and mett of ¢ thropology to psychiat W h may of most scientific va { latest methods of ant al search is to estimate the weight of t brain in living pe 15 by mean cquations, “In order to perfect all the details attendant upon applying the test of the equation on the livi I am now, for first time, so far as I know, testing it upon the drm’, where 1 make three measurements of the head then the brain is taken out and w d and he difference between the predicted and actual weight of the brain is found After T have tested this equation upon a sufficient number of the dead, and found the percentage of error, it can be applied to the living, to both normal and abnormal persons. it will be necessary to apply the to a sufficient number of persons for purposes of comy s It is posed to apply the eq tion to the 600 member: a control experimer age of the members Congress iz between 40 a control experiment will value. Moreover, the insane in crnment hospital here in Washingtor ne from all parts of the eountry, ju s subtracted from Dr. MacDonald s at he is groping in the dark, hoping that there may be discovered some trut ncern- ing the relationship between size of the brain and the mental capacity of the individuals concer “At the pres- ent time,” ! ued, “we do not know how m size the head, or of the brain, or of the body has to do with ation s that pos. whose brains proved to he diseased know, less than twelve inc r of child ¢ ‘One of ow so little Helen Garder in the est of well-known persons ler, American lier H. Knig American Winchell, Americar Burt G. Wilder, are i “In recent years sclentists, mainly psychologists, psychiatrists and educa- tors, have given much ention to the possible relationship between physical and mental characteristics. Numbers of patients in institutions have been cured of mental disorders by atment for physical ailments « surgical opera- tions on some diseased portion of the e recognized, C! , such simple relationships as t at the rer body, as a rule, has larger , but it must be emphasized that we do not know the relation between the size of the brain and the grasp or quickness of the mentality. GTDUCATORS are beginning to take especial interest in what we call anthropometrical tests, or tests of the relationship between quickness of mind and the size not only of the cranium but of the body as a whole “For instance, in our height-mental test, we found that there appears to be some positive correlation between mental ability and height, In measuring about 50,000 school children we found that taller children at each age show a ntage of brightness than also discovered ildren are shorter and that lities are inferior general. has been pretty definitely estab- lished that the height of a man is pro- tionate to the weight of his cere- he larger the man the 1 A rough estimate of brain weight be obtained by dividing the height body in inches by 1.6 for man, i for woman by multiplying this quo- by 30-31. Therefore a woman who vo feet four inches will in all proba- have a brain that weighs about erams children. For 0,000 children, same age as brighter than the r classes are heavier than en of the | hip hetween rom the And the 1 be remem- forchead to of the head to have ren and T W fwa iy Once Dr. MacDonald’s figures are tabulated, it may be pos- sible to gauge the collective intelligence of the lower house with a sort of intellectual tape measure savage races are mostly long-headed, and that as the tendency toward a broad head increases, civilization increases. “Upon further classification of these groups into the bright and the dull chil- dren it was found that 15 per cent of the dull boys and only 8 per cent of the bright boys were long-headed. The larg- est percentage of long-headed children in any classification was found among the unruly boys, who also were graded as being unusually dull.” Dr. MacDonald would have extreme caution observed in applying these tests to single individuals, foe the old adage still holds good that the exception merely proves the rule. They should only be studied in con:action with their application to large group. of persons He calls attention to the fact that the probable truth of a conclusion about mankind increases with the number of cases observed, although among certain v and uniformity, results based upon a smaller number of observations may turn out to be equally accurate, Although the general rule has been propounded that the larger around the head the brighter the child, an anxious ther must not construe it to mean that iis Johnnie is little better than a half- wit because his head is so small that it is difficult to find a hat small enough for him, nor should the fond mother who is put to it to find a hat large enough for her little daughter think that the daughter is necessarily going to prove a prodigy or a genius. It should be noted also in this connec- tion, he points out, that the size of a child's brain with relation to his body increases at a slower rate than his body does, as he grows older. For instance, little Tommic's head at 6 years of age is very much larger relatively to his body than when he reaches the age of 15, This is a perfectly obvious fact te any of us if we just stop and think a moment, The outlines of a child’s body be immediately identified by the size of the head, a fact of the fourteenth, fif- teenth centuries did not realize, for all their children are minia- ture adults teenth and A child’s mental development also a more rapid pace during years than at any other is development, Is and thousands Ng purpos prepared Dr, MacDonald for his st Congressmen. He feels that if he is not able to determine whe er the composite ize of the craniums has any definite tionship to the mentality of the gOv- ited States he will well as the physiological ¢ prosperous American man esent age during his prime. Slml'rl' it develop that there is a nite relationship between size point which has been dis- be that persons seeking 2 their cerebral campaign litera- comes, if it ever dition to a s a lawmaker, the ears s an intellig great capa . Get out he big head, tired.” h th s when Congressmen basis of head meas- ¢ be possible to stand- ere will be no danger embarrassr in the House cloak- room. If Congrossman Smith Jones wears off Cong Jones Smith's I ery much differ- 1 heads will be I it won't m ence, for all ¢ of the same size, Copyrioht by Pudlic Ledoer