NERVOUS CENTRES. (HUMAN ANATOMY. THE ENCEPHALON.) 



667 



the orang otang more than the European brain 

 does, except in the more symmetrical distribu- 

 tion of the gyri and sulci. It is not even cer- 

 tain that this is always the case. We cannot 

 therefore coincide with the opinion of many 

 naturalists, who say that the Negro has more 

 resemblance to apes than Europeans in refe- 

 rence to the brain and nervous system. It is 

 true that many ugly and degenerate Negro tribes 

 on the count show some similarity in their out- 

 ward form and inward structure to the ape ; for 

 instance, in the greater size of the bones of the 

 face, the projecting alveoli and teeth, the pro- 

 minent cheek-bones, the recession of the chin, 

 the flat form of the nose-bones, the projecting 

 and strong lower jaw, the position of the fora- 

 men occipitale magnum, the relative greater 

 length of the ossa humeri and the bones of 

 the foramen, the flat foot, and in the length, 

 breadth, shape, and position of the os calcis. * 

 These points certainly distinguish many 

 Negro tribes from the Europeans, but they are 

 not common to all the Negroes of the interior 

 of Africa, the greater number of which are well 

 made, and have handsome features."* 



A series of researches so extensive and con- 



ducted with so much care, (although the actual 

 comparison of the brains themselves is yet 

 wanting,) cannot allow a doubt to arise as to the 

 conclusion which ought properly to flow from 

 them. It would appear from them that no 

 very marked differences exist between the 

 brains of any of the classes of mankind that 

 the same relative inferiority of women to men 

 is universally met with and that a very dimi- 

 nutive state of brain may be, when not an ac- 

 companiment of idiotcy, either a part of a frame 

 originally very small in stature, or a degenerate 

 condition consequent upon a life of the lowest 

 barbarism, under every possible physical impe- 

 diment to the developement of bodily vigour, 

 wholly deprived of moral or intellectual cul- 

 ture, a state which becomes more and more 

 degenerate in each succeeding generation, or, 

 lastly, the effect of the mechanical compression 

 to which many tribes subject the crania of their 

 offspring in early infancy. 



In proceeding to the examination of the hu- 

 man encephalon, it seems expedient to pre- 

 mise a few observations on the method which 

 it is most advisable to adopt for this purpose. 



Fig. 380. 



Section in the vertical direction, to show the relation 

 and mode of connection of the various segments of tfte 

 encephalon . ( After Mayo . ) 



g, fibres passing to the posterior lobe of the brain ; g, 

 corpus geniculatum externum ; n, anterior of the 

 corpora quadragemina (nates); b, posterior of cor- 

 pora quadragemina ( testes) ;/, olivary fascicles ; 

 o, olivary bodies ; v, ponsVarolii ; p, anterior py- 

 ramids ; r, restiform bodies (forming part of the 

 crus cerebri) ; t, processus e cerebello ad testes 

 (cerebro - cerebellar commissure of Solly); c, 

 cerebellum j *, spinal cord. 



The inferior limit of the encephalon is the 



* The remaining observations of Tiedemann on 

 the intellectual condition of the Negro merit atten- 

 tive perusal. See also Prichard on the Physical 



plane of the occipital foramen. In examining 



History of Mankind, vol. i. p. 

 p. 346. 



197, and vol. ii. 



