* Professor Sollas even
observes that "the brain increases in volume as we go backward."
This is, apparently, so serious a reversal of the familiar
statement in regard to the evolution of man that we must consider
it carefully.
*See especially an address by Professor Sollas in the Quarterly
Journal of the Geological Society, Vol. LXVI. (1910).
Largeness of brain in an individual is no indication of
intelligence, and smallness of brain no proof of low mentality.
Some of the greatest thinkers, such as Aristotle and Leibnitz,
had abnormally small heads. Further, the size of the brain is of
no significance whatever except in strict relation to the size
and weight of the body. Woman has five or six ounces less
brain-matter than man, but in proportion to her average size and
the weight of the vital tissue of her body (excluding fat) she
has as respectable a brain as man. When, however, these
allowances have been made, it has usually been considered that
the average brain of a race is in proportion to its average
intelligence. This is not strictly true. The rabbit has a larger
proportion of brain to body than the elephant or horse, and the
canary a larger proportion than the chimpanzee.
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