James
Cardinal, who died in Guy's Hospital in 1825, and who was so
celebrated for the size of his head, only measured 32 1/2 inches
in head-circumference.
The largest healthy brains on record, that is, of men of
prominence, are those of Cuvier, weighing 64 1/3 ounces; of
Daniel Webster, weighing 63 3/4 ounces (the circumference of
whose head was 23 3/4 inches); of Abercrombie, weighing 63
ounces, and of Spurzheim, weighing 55 1/16 ounces. Byron and
Cromwell had abnormally heavy brains, showing marked evidence of
disease.
A curious instance in this connection is that quoted by Pigne,
who gives an account of a double brain found in an infant. Keen
reports finding a fornix which, instead of being solid from side
to side, consisted of two lateral halves with a triangular space
between them.
When the augmentation of the volume of the cranium is caused by
an abundant quantity of serous fluid the anomaly is known as
hydrocephaly. In this condition there is usually no change in the
size of the brain-structure itself, but often the cranial bones
are rent far asunder. Minot speaks of a hydrocephalic infant
whose head measured 27 1/2 inches in circumference; Bright
describes one whose head measured 32 inches; and Klein, one 43
inches.
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