The relationship between brain size and intelligence from "summary" of The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin
In the animal series, we have seen that the brain of an ant is small in size compared to that of a bee, but the ant displays a higher degree of intelligence than the bee. The Orang, one of the anthropoid apes, has a brain larger than that of a baboon, but the baboon is more intelligent. The gorilla, chimpanzee, and orang are almost like men in their mental powers. When the skull of a microcephalous idiot is compared to that of a man, or of a low-bred woman to that of a woman of higher race, one cannot say that there is any great disproportion in the size of the brain. The brain of a new-born child is relatively large to its body than the adult's brain. On the other hand, the brain of a human baby, at a very young age, is much larger than that of a chimpanzee of the same age. As humans grow, the brain increases in size to a greater extent than in the anthropoid apes. The difference in the size of the adult brain does not seem so great when compared to the size of the body. The real difference between the brain of man and that of the highest animals, is immense. Charles Bell proved that the convolutions of the brain are deeper and more complex in man than in animals. The frontal lobes of the brain, which are associated with the most important functions of the mind, are the largest in man. The brain is the organ of the mind. The brain of a philosopher is a mere organ, albeit a wonderful one, of a philosopher's mind. The brain is the material organ with which the mind works. The brain is the most important of all the organs of the body. It is not that the brain evolved to think, but that it evolved as an organ that would serve for the complex movements and thought of man. The most complex functions such as abstraction, generalisation, self-consciousness, etc., are performed by the brain. The brain is the organ that has been most modified through natural selection for the purpose of rendering the mind capable of performing its high functions.
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