BY N. DE MIKLOUHO-MACLAY. 173 



1881. Although the material in question consisted only of three 

 brains, yet I find that this new contribution to our knowledge of 

 race-anatomy supports the view which I may briefly summarize 

 as follows : — The investigation of the brains of representatives of 

 different races of men shows that there occur peculiarities of by 

 no means trifling import, which one cannot regard as individual 

 variations. To this category belong differences in the development 

 of the corpus callosum, of the pons varolii, of the cerebellum ; differ- 

 ences in the volume of the cranial nerves, and so forth ; also the 

 arrangement of the convolutions of the cerebrum is different, and 

 I believe that in course of time it will probably be discovered that 

 there exist certain definite types of cerebral convolutions corres- 

 ponding to the principal varieties of mankind. In order to 

 discover those types much material will require to be conscienti- 

 ously examined ; and I hope that my investigation will induce 

 other anatomists to work in this direction to prove or to disprove 

 this statement, which in the present state of our knowledge can 

 only be more or less hypothetical. 



On my way from Thursday Island I let slip no opportunity of 

 examining, measuring, and photographing the remnant of the 

 Australian aboriginals ; and hearing it stated in various quarters 

 that there were living in the interior of Queensland certain 

 natives, described as devoid of hair, I thought the problem of a 

 possible occurrence of a hairless stock among the aboriginals 

 worthy of a personal investigation. I have written to Professor 

 Virchow, of Berlin, at length concerning my examination of this 

 hairless family, which I found at Grulnarber Station, near St. 

 George, on the Belonne River. This was made considerably 

 easier for me by the kind assistance of Mr. G. M. Kirk, of 

 Gulnarber Station. As regards this instance of natural, and in 

 this case hereditary atrichia universalis among the Australian 

 aboriginals, I will only remark that it forms an interesting 

 antithesis to the well-known cases of excessive hypertrichosis. 



In order to work quite without disturbance, availing myself of 

 the kind hospitality of the Hon. J. P. Bell, I went to Jimbour, 



