Capacity of the Brain

1906

By Dr. Frederick Peterson

Authorities differ as to the capacity of the average brain to receive the impressions of a lifetime. It is pretty well believed that there is in the brain a centre of conservation distinct from the centre of perception. We of course know nothing as to the nature of the relation of brain cells to percepts and conservation, but we do know that there must be a relation. The latest researches (Hammerberg and Thomson) show that the number of cells in the brain is nine billion two hundred million. All stimuli, external (through the five senses) or internal (through processes), must leave some trace upon these cells, chemical, physical, or dynamic. These stimuli are composed of all sorts of percepts; words and sounds heard; things and words seen; objects felt, tasted, smelled; sensations perceived in our own bodies; thoughts pushing upward into consciousness. And a little reflection will show how innumerable such imprints must be in the course of a single waking day.

Even without reading the resident of a city must receive an incalculable number of impressions upon his brain every 24 hours. The reading centre of the brain occupies a comparative small area in the back of the left hemisphere, and consequently must possess a very small portion of the nine billion cells referred to above. We can only guess at the number, but a fair estimate would be about a twentieth, or say five hundred millions which in a lifetime of 60 years would allow us about 25,000 cells daily for the perception and conservation of words and sentences read. These figures may have no scientific value, but at any rate they emphasize a very important fact, and that is that our brain capacity is limited and that we should be sparing of the cells we daily squander. — Colliers' Weekly.