38 L. BOLK 



amongst the culture nations those are psychically the most fa- 

 vored in which metopism is the most frequent. Now in the mid- 

 dle region of the continent and in Russia metopism occurs in 

 about 6.5 per cent, according to Schwalbe, Ranke, Gruber and 

 others. In the northern part of Europe, the phenomexion is more 

 frequent, and attains 9.5 per cent according to Bryce, Simon 

 and myself. In Frisians, occupying the northern region of the 

 Netherlands, metopism amounts even to 11.4 per cent. Though 

 the acceptance of the principle should be very flattering for the 

 Dutch people, I do not accept its exactness, metopism having 

 nothing to do with intelligence. I think the interpretation of 

 the different frequency of metopism in the inhabitants of the 

 central and the northern region of the continent to be this : that 

 it is simply a racial difference, the phenomenon occurring more 

 frequently in the Homo nordicus than in the Homo alpinus. 



• The opinion that the difference in frequency of metopism in 

 the human race is a mere physical anthropological character 

 also holds good with regard to a comparison of civilized and un- 

 civilized races. In the former, metopism is commonly very 

 rare. What may be the reason of it? The authors, who hold 

 that the metopism is the result of an increased intracranial 

 pressure, caused by a somewhat hypernormal growth of the 

 brain, adduce this difference as a proof of the exactness of their 

 doctrine, obviously supposing that such a hypernormal growth 

 does not occur in uncivilized races. In this argument there is 

 a very obvious mistake. Surely the average weight of the brain 

 is a lower one in uncivilized races. But the individual weight 

 of the brain differs in uncivilized races as well as in culture 

 races. Not only among white men, but also among Negroes 

 and Papuans there are individuals with sub-normal, normal and 

 hypernormal volume of their brain. And if really a strongly de- 

 veloped brain should cause an increased pressure upon the. inner 

 surface of the skull, this condition is realized as well in a Papuan 

 with, a hypernormal development of his brain, as in an European. 

 Nevertheless in Papuans and Negroes, metopism is rare. I con- 

 sider this a further proof that the persistence of the frontal suture 



