The capacity of the osseous case of the brain is a more interesting point,
to which I was led to attend by finding, as previously stated, that with
all domesticated rabbits the length of the skull relatively to its breadth
has greatly increased in comparison with that of the wild rabbits. If we
had possessed a large number of domesticated rabbits of nearly the same
size with the wild rabbits, it would have been a simple task to have
measured and compared the capacities of their skulls. But this is not the
case: almost all the domestic breeds have larger bodies than wild rabbits,
and the lop-eared kinds are more than double their weight. As a small
animal has to exert its senses, intellect, and instincts equally with a
large animal, we ought not by any means to expect an animal twice or thrice
as large as another to have a brain of double or treble the size. (4/27.
See Prof. Owen's remarks on this subject in his paper on the 'Zoological
Significance of the Brain, etc., of Man, etc.' read before Brit.
Association 1862: with respect to Birds see 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc.' January
11, 1848 page 8.) Now, after weighing the bodies of four wild rabbits, and
of four large but not fattened lop-eared rabbits, I find that on an average
the wild are to the lop-eared in weight as 1 to 2.17; in average length of
body as 1 to 1.41; whilst in capacity of skull they are as 1 to 1.15. Hence
we see that the capacity of the skull, and consequently the size of the
brain, has increased but little, relatively to the increased size of the
body; and this fact explains the narrowness of the skull relatively to its
length in all domestic rabbits.
TABLE 3: MEASUREMENTS OF WILD AND SEMI-WILD RABBITS.
I. Length of Skull (inches).
II. Length of Body from Incisors to Anus (inches).
III. Weight of whole Body (pounds and ounces).
IV. Capacity of Skull measured by Small Shot (grains).
V. Capacity calculated according to Length of Skull relatively to that of
No. 1 (Wild Rabbit, Kent) (grains).
VI. Difference between actual and calculated capacities of Skulls (grains).
VII. Showing how much per cent the Brain, by calculation according to the
length of the Skull is too light (-) or too heavy (+), relatively to the
Brain of the Wild Rabbit No. 1.
NAME OF BREED: I. II. III. IV. V. VI.
VII.
WILD AND SEMI-WILD RABBITS:
1. Wild Rabbit, Kent: 3.15 17.4 3,5 972 .. ..
+2
2. Wild Rabbit, Shetland Islands: 3.15 .. .. 979 .. ..
+2
3. Wild Rabbit, Ireland: 3.15 .. .. 992 .. ..
+2
4. Domestic rabbit, run wild,
Sandon: 3.15 18.5 .. 977 .. ..
+2
5. Wild, common variety,
small specimen, Kent: 2.96 17.0 2,14 875 913 38 -
4
6. Wild, fawn-coloured variety,
Scotland: 3.1 .. .. 918 950 32 -
3
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