)5 



/4 



O:^ SEVEEAL ANATOMICAL CHARACTEES OF THE 



HUMA:^r BEAIiT, SAID TO VAEY ACCOEDING TO 



EACE AND SEX, WITH ESPECIAL EEFEE- 



ENCE TO THE WEIGHT OF THE 



FEONTAL LOBE. 



FRANKLIN P. MALL. 



From the Anatomical Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. 



A survey of the literature on the peculiarities of the brain in men 

 of genius, in Avomen and in the lower races indicates that some anat- 

 omists have thought they could determine, almost at a glance, whether 

 or not a given specimen came from a great man, a woman or from 

 a negro. I refer especially to the older works of Huschke and of 

 Parker and to the more recent ones of Spitzka and of Bean. 



Huschke^ cut the frontal lobe from the rest of the brain at the 

 line of the coronal suture, that is he removed that portion of the 

 cerebrum which is covered by the frontal bone and compared it 

 with the rest of the brain. The result showed a decidedly greater 

 amount of frontal lobe, fully one per cent (!) in the male than in the 

 female. The fresh brains that were studied by Huschke were simply 

 cut with a knife along the line mentioned above. He further states 

 that the central sulcus is straighter, more perpendicular and nearer 

 the front end in the female brain, the difference in position being 

 about 121/4 per cent of the brain length.^ The latter figures were 

 obtained from wax casts of brains. 



Huschke also expresses himself regarding the negro brain as 

 follows: "Aus allem diesen geht hervor, dass das Negerhirn, 



^Huschke. Schadel, Hirn und Seele. Jena, 1854. 



''The misprint in Huschke, p. 153, has been copied by Eberstaller, p. 41. 

 The number given is 86.1 per cent, it should be 56.1 per cent. 



The American Journal of Anatomy. — Vol. IX, No. 1. 



