of genius.) There are numerous exceptions in which it descends below the ordinary average.
It is certain that in Italy, Volta (1,860 c.cm.), Petrarch (1,602 c.cm.), Bordoni (1,681 c.cm.), Brunacci (1,701 c.cm.), St. Ambrose (1,792 c.cm.), and Fusinieri (1604 c.cm.), all presented great cranial capacity. The same character is found to a still greater degree in Kant (1,740 c.cm.), Thackeray (1660 c.cm.), Cuvier (1,830 c.cm.), and Tourgueneff (2,012 c.cm.).
Le Bon studied twenty-six skulls of French men of genius, among whom were Boileau, Descartes, and Jourdan.[1] He found that the most celebrated had an average capacity of 1,732 cubic centimetres; while the ancient Parisians offered only 1,559 c.cm. Among the Parisians of to-day scarcely 12 per cent. exceed 1,700 c.cm., a figure surpassed by 73 per cent. of the celebrated men.
But sub-microcephalic skulls may also be found in men of genius. Wagner and Bischoff,[2] examining twelve
- ↑ Revue Scientifique, 1882.
- ↑ Wagner (Das Hirngewicht, 1877) gives these measurements of
scientific men of Göttingen:—
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See Help:Table for formatting instructions.Bischoff (Hirngewichte bei Münchener Gelehrten) gives the following measurements:—
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