Three Naloo Negro Skulls. 43 



is no relationship between the amount of talent and the size 

 of the face, as Soemmering thought there exists. 



" The brain," says Professor Tiedemann, in his paper on 

 the brain of the negro, " is undoubtedly the organ of the 

 mind. It is the part of our body which gives us the con- 

 sciousness of our own existence, and through which we 

 receive the impressions made upon the external senses, con- 

 ducted to the brain by the nerves. Here the perceptions 

 are compared and combined, so as to produce ideas. In this 

 organ we think, reason, desire, and will. In short, the brain 

 is the instrument by which all the operations called intellec- 

 tual are carried on."* The chief value of the study of 

 human crania is, that the cranium is a faithful record of the 

 volume of the brain which was contained within it. Tiede- 

 mann determined the relative magnitudes of the Negro and 

 European brains by weighing the quantity of dry millet seed 

 with which he filled the crania. And Majendie says, " The 

 only way of estimating the volume of brain in a living person 

 is to measure the dimensions of the skull."t 



Amongst other conclusions which Tiedemann draws from 

 his observations is this : — " 5. There is undoubtedly a very 

 close connection between the absolute size of the brain and 

 the intellectual powers and functions of the mind. This is 

 evident from the remarkable smallness of the brain in cases 

 of congenital idiotismus, few much exceeding in weight the 

 brain of a new-born child. Gall, Spurzheim, Haslam, Esquirol, 

 and others, have already observed this, which is also con- 

 firmed by my own researches. The brain of very talented 

 men is remarkable, on the other hand, for its size."J 



I proceed to give some measurements of the Naloo crania, 

 and to compare them with similar measurements of two 

 Congo negro cranias, an Ash an tee negro crania, and some 

 European crania. The Naloo tribe is located on the banks 

 of the Nunez, to the south of the Gambia, and in latitude 12° 

 north. The Ashantee country extends northward to about 

 10° north latitude ; and Congo is situated in 7° south latitude. 



♦ Phil. Trans. 1836, p. 520. 



t Majendie's Physiology by Milligan, p. 104. 



1 Phil. Trans. 1836, p. 502. 



