Literary Notices. xxxvii 



at general conclusions Professor Donaldson believes in grouping the 

 statistics, for " age, stature, sex, bodily weight and race" are all mod- 

 ifying circumstances. He concludes that there is a marked constancy 

 in the percentage values of the subdivisions of the encephalon of all 

 ages, all statures, and both sexes. 



Thus after maturity the male encephalon and all its parts are lar- 

 ger than the female. With increasing age there is a decrease of the 

 weight of the encephalon and all its parts, and for the same age and 

 sex decrease in bodily weight is accompanied by by a decrease in 

 weight of the encephalon as a whole and in all its subdivisions. In 

 this respect the two sexes are similar. 



In chapter V, on Increase of the Brain in Weight and Variations 

 of the Cranium in Capacity, the suggestive fact is brought out that the 

 greater part of the growth of the brain takes place before any of the 

 formal educational processes have begun. In speaking of the weight 

 of the brain of non-European races, quotations are made from Hunt's 

 observations upon weights of the brains of mulattoes and negroes, in 

 which he shows that the negro brain is uniformly less than the Europ- 

 ean, and in those mulattoes with a mixture of less than half of white 

 blood, the result is even below the negro average, while in a mixture of 

 over half white blood, the average is between that of the negro and of 

 the white. In the " Variations in Brain Weight" the author states that, 

 while the heaviest brains belong to the European races and the lightest 

 to the Australians, yet it is quite impossible, even in a condensed ser- 

 ies, to harmonize intermediate groups with the theory that brain weight 

 and culture as we measure it, are closely correlated. 



In discussing the brain weights of eminent men a number of inter- 

 esting tables are given, showing that it would appear that greater brain 

 weights are more frequent among eminent men even when these are 

 compared with groups of men of ordinary intelligence but of large 

 stature. The fact is noted however that most of the comparisons have 

 been made between " eminents " and "ordinaries" or even "crim- 

 inals," while the brains of reputable and successful and professional 

 men have not been weighed. The insane present encephala that are 

 very slightly less than the normal in absolute weight; while the differ- 

 ence between the sexes is less marked than in the sane. 



Chapter VII gives a good summary of the nervous elements accord- 

 ing to recent modes of interpretation. The next chapter has an inter- 

 esting outline of the development of the nerve elements, a subject 

 that would be of value to pedagogues. Some very important and interest- 

 ing collections of data are brought together in this chapter, the author 



