12 - The Prince George Citizen - Saturday, January 5,1991
UNIVERSITY WANTS TO STUDY THEM
P .G . Y M /Y W C A
fir
fe m U iie a .
J a p a n keep s ‘fam ous brains’
by ELAINE KURTENBACH
TOKYO (AP) — Behind the
tattooed skins, severed arms and
rat skeletons in the university lab
rests the world’s only collection of
famous brains, left to posterity by
some of Japan’s greatest thinkers.
Each of the 120 brains of prime
ministers, novelists, artists and
scholars has its own container in
the University of Tokyo’s medical
department
“ We’d like to get many more,”
said Yutaka Yoshida, curator of
the collection. “ I’d especially like
to get brains from mathematicians,
musicians and singers.”
The collection was begun in
1913, when the family of Taro
Katsura, a three-time prime minis­
ter, asked that his brain be pre­
served for study after his death.
The newest acquisition is the brain
of former prime minister Takeo
Miki, who died in 1988.
So far, the deep-rooted reluc­
tance among Japanese to tamper
with the dead has ensured that the
museum’s resources far outweigh
its ability to use them.
“ We try, as far as possible, not
to cut them,” Yoshida said. “ We
want to keep them in their original
shape.”
University researchers have
cross-sectioned several brains to
allow some visual and microscopic
comparisons. Most are undis­
turbed, however, immersed in
amber formaldehyde, gleaming
palely behind small handwritten
cards giving the names and special
qualities of their original owners.
Yoshida is a slight, quiet man
with 13 years experience in the
lab, which also has wall-hangings
of tattooed skins donated by men
who wanted to have their body art
preserved.
As curator, he has renewed ef­
forts to learn from the collection of
famous brains.
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Yutaka Yoshida shows the brain of Osachi Hamaguchl, Japan's prime minister killed In 1931.
The brain of Hisashi Hamaguchi, an eloquent prime minister as­
sassinated in 1931, looks about the
same as that of Yasuko Miyake, a
writer who provided the only
female brain in the collection.
“ Researchers say the fibres in
the part of Hamaguchi’s brain that
controls speech are very complex,
very special,” Yoshida said.
“ You can’t do much research,
just looking at the outside of the
brains,” he said. “ We’re ob­
viously going to have to start
doing histological (microscopic
tissue) studies in the future.”
Yoshida feels some Japanese
would protest such studies.
“ Somehow, I think the Japanese
would want to keep the famous
R o m a n ia n
FERGUS, Ont (CP) — The
squalid conditions endured by
children in Romanian orphanages
have worsened since the revolution
in December 1989, says a visiting
Romanian official.
Despite international adoptions
and world attention, the number of
children in the orphanages is up­
ward o f 600,000, says Nicholas
Vladulescu, who oversees external
affairs for the Romanian province
of Caras-Severin.
Vladulescu was visiting the Fer­
gus home of George and Karen
Banu, a Canadian couple who
were among the first to adopt Ro­
manian children following the rev­
olution.
Conditions have worsened be­
cause of food shortages and a
rocky transition since the fall of
the Communist government, he
said.
“ Now people are free, but don’t
ABOUT
C O N T IN U IN G
E D U C A T IO N - T R A D E S
o f o r p h a n a g e s
w o rs e ,
Supported byThe Prince George Citizen
know what they want to do with
their freedom,” Vladulescu said
through a translator.
The vast majority of children in
the orphanages were abandoned by
impoverished parents. Former
government policy was geared tp
substantially increasing the popula­
tion, but instead led to children
being abandoned.
Vladulescu is assisting a group
of local Canadians who have or­
ganized the Romanian Orphanage
Relief. Twenty of them will travel
to Romania on Jan. 20 to deliver
$1.5 million in medicine, supplies
and equipment.
it w o r k s . . .
F O R ALL O F U S .
Unibed Wlay
The Tokyo collection resulted
from a preoccupation with the
differences between Asians and
Caucasians, men and women, geni­
uses and average people, that
emerged during the Meiji Era
(1868-1912), when Japan began in
earnest to study western science
and technology,
Eventually, Japanese medical re­
searchers began to study brains,
with some controversial results.
The brains of some famous people,
they found, were heavier than
those of less distinguished mortals.
“ It seems as if great thinkers
may indeed have heavier brains,”
said Yoshida. “ But then, so do
many criminals, I hear. Maybe
they have a different sort of intel­
ligence.”
For further information contact
COLLEGE OF NEWCALEDONIA
3330- 22nd Avenue, Prince George, B.C V2N1P8 Phone 562-2131
Choose to Cruise
THE
s a y s
T h a n k s to y o u
brains the way they are now. They
wouldn’t like to have them laying
around on lab benches.”
Many universities keep frozen or
preserved brains for research pur­
poses, but none has a collection of
geniuses, Yoshida said.
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January 21 - March 25,1991
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Special Closure Monday, January 7
All Woodward's stores will be closed Monday
to get ready for our huge Twosday Sale.
While we apologize for any inconvenience
Monday's closure may cause,
we think Twosday will more than make up for it.
Don't miss it.
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