Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 02.djvu/174

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BBAIN 152 bbaintb.ee ments of the gullet and stomach; (6) movements of articulate speech; (7) for the suppression of the saliva. Every part of the brain is exactly symmetrical with the part opposite. Twelve pairs of nerves proceed from the base of the brain, including the nerves for the organs of sight, hearing, taste, and of smell and of touch, also those for the muscles of the face, those for the cav- ity of the mouth and for the larynx. Sight. — Destruction of one lobe causes permanent blindness in one side of both eyes. In man, disease of the left angular gyrus produces what is called "word- blindness." In this condition, one loses the power of reading words, although one sees the characters distinctly and may be even able to spell the word, and write it, and yet be unable to read what has been written. Hearing. — The center of hearing seems to lie in the first temporal sphenoidal convolution in both sides. Partial de- struction of this convolution on the left side causes the condition of "word deaf- ness," that is, to hear sounds but have no sense of their meaning. Taste and Smell. — Ferrier locates the sense of taste and of smell in the unciate gyrus on the inner surface of the tem- poro-sphenoidal lobe. Touch. — Some physiologists place these in the motor area. Fibers from the vari- ous sense organs lead to the cortical areas through the posterior third of the internal capsule. If this is injured, loss of all forms of sensibility, hearing, sight, taste, etc. of the opposite side follows. In man the brain weighs from two to four pounds; the average weight in male European adults being 49 to 50 ounces or about l-35th of the weight of the body; in the dog the average weight is about l-120th of the animal; in the horse l-450th. The brain of females weigh five ounces less on the average than that of males. The ratio of the brain — weight to that of the body — is the same in both sexes; consequently the difference of weight in the brain of males and females is due to the lesser body weight in the woman and not to inferior cerebral de- velopment. At birth, the proportionate weight of the _ brain to the body is p:reatest. It diminishes slowly to the 10th year, when 1 :14 is the ratio. About the 40th year the brain is heaviest. After that it diminishes at the rate of an ounce every 10 years. The theory that the size and weight of a man's brain is in direct proportion to his intellect is discredited. The brain attains its highest degree of development earlier than any other part of the body. The parts lying in .'ront have functions connected with the intel- lectual part of man's nature; while the parts lying nearer the back belong to the merely animal or organic nature. As the central organ of the nervous system the brain is sympathetically affected in nearly all cases of acute diseases. Diseases of the Brain. — Diseases of the brain fall into two classes, accord- ing as they exhibit mental characteris- tics alone, or also anatomical disturb- ances. To the former class belong hypo- chondria, mania, etc. Among the latter may be mentioned meningitis, or inflam- mation of the membranes of the brain, which seldom occurs without affecting the substance of the brain also, and thus giving rise to phrenitis, hydrocephalus, or water in the head, caused by pressure of water in the cavities of the brain. Consult "Diseases of the Nervous Sys- tem," Jeliffe and White (1917). BBAINERD, a city of Minnesota, the county-seat of Crow Wing co. It is on the Northern Pacific and the Minnesota and International railroads, and on the Mississippi river. It is an important in- dustrial community and has machine shops of the Northern Pacific railroad, lumber yards, cigar factories, flour mills, paper mills, etc. There is a court house, Y. M. C. A. building, a library, public park, and St. Joseph's Hospital. The city has a large export trade in lumber, grain, hay, furs, and iron. Pop. (1910) 8,526; (1920) 9,591. BBAIN FEVEB, a term in common use for inflammation of the lining mem- branes of the brain, meningitis; or of the brain itself, cerebritis. These are generally found in conjunction, seldom separate, and are termed phrenitis or encephalitis. Often associated (a) with tuberculosis, or scrofula; sometimes (b) with gout, rheumatism, or syphilis; in the first instance generally in the case of children and delicate young females, in the others chiefly in adult males; very frequently, also, from injury, or as a consequence of previous diseases. Brain fever is characterized by violent head- ache, intolerance of light, excitement, ex- treme sensitiveness, hyperemia, delirium, convulsions, and coma. BBAINTBEE, a town in Norfolk co., Mass.; on the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad; 10 miles S. of Boston. It contains the villages of South and East Braintree; has electric street railroads to the principal near- by towns and villages, and is principally engaged in granite quarrying, and the manufacture of tacks, shoes, wool, rub- ber goods, and fans. John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and other members of