82 ORIGINAL ARTICLES. 



well aware that it is the fashion to say that the brains of all races of 

 mankind are alike ; but in this, *as in other cases, fashion is not quite 

 at one with fact. 



Soemmering and Tiedemann are directly at variance with respect to 

 the relative proportions of the size of the nerves to the brain in the 

 higher and in the lower races of mankind ; and, as respects the relative 

 proportions of the cerebrum and cerebellum, the ratios deducible from 

 Tiedemann' s measurements give so small a difference, that though it is 

 rather in favour of the existence of a larger proportional size of the cere- 

 bellum in the lower races, I do not think it can be depended upon. 



But, with regard to the third especially Simian cerebral character 

 mentioned above, Tiedemann' s observations (though, as the negro's ad- 

 vocate, he endeavours to explain them away) are definite, and to the 

 point: — 



" The only similarity between the brain of the negro and that of the orang outang 

 is, that the gyri and sulci on both hemispheres are more symmetrical than in the brain 

 of the European. It remains, however, to be proved whether this symmetry is to be 

 found in all negro brains, which I very much douht." — L. c, p. 519. 



One would like to know the ground of Professor Tiedemann's doubts, 

 because the only other observation he details, bearing on this subject, 

 leads him to precisely the same conclusion. Thus, at p. 316 of the 

 same memoir, I find the exi:)ress statement: — " This [symmetry] is 

 particularly visible in the brain of the Bosjes woman." Indeed, the 

 fact must at once strike every one conversant with the ordinary appear- 

 ance of a European brain, who glances at PL xxxiv. of Tiedemann's 

 Memoir, in which a view of the Bosjesman brain referred to is given. 



Fortunately, M. Gratiolet has also particularly described and care- 

 fully figured this brain (which is that of the " Hottentot Venus;"' who 

 died in Paris, and had the honour of being anatomized by Cuvier), and 

 his remarks upon the subject are exceedingly important and instruc- 

 tive: — 



" This woman, be it premised, was no idiot. Nevertheless, it may be observed, that 

 the convolutions of her brain are relatively very little complicated. But what strikes 

 one, at once, is the simplicity, the regular arrangement of the two convolutions which com- 

 pose the superior stage of the frontal lobe. These folds, if those of the two hemispheres 

 be compared, present, as we have already pointed out, an almost perfect symmetry, such 



as is never exhibited by normal brains of the Caucasian race This regularity — 



this symmetry, involuntarily recall the regularity and symmetry of the cerebral convolu- 

 tions in the lower species of animals. There is, in this respect, between the brain of a 

 white man and that of this Bosjesman woman a difference such that it cannot be mis- 

 taken ; and if it be constant, as there is every reason to suppose it is, it constitutes one 

 of the most interesting facts which have yet been noted." — L. c, p. 65. 



" The antero-superior curve is less convex than in the white man : lastly, the orbi- 

 tal fossae are more concave ; and there may be observed at the level of the anterior ex- 

 tremity of the temporo-sphenoidal lobe, a very marked constriction, which results from 

 a very remarkable predominance of the supraciliary lobe. This disposition appears to 

 result from the less development of the superior divisions. The brains of foetuses belong- 

 ing to the white race present it at the maximum, when the operculum of the fissure of 

 Sylvius does not yet cover the central lobe ; it is still quite apparent at birth ; but it be- 



