Proceedings of the Association of American Anatomists XVII 
Certain results of the comparison are noteworthy, but the main object 
of this paper is to emphasize the need of rendering the study of the fis- 
sures both more general and more perfect. 
Amongst the means to this end are: (a) Early familiarity with cerebral 
topography. (b) Preserving the brains, especially of the rarer Primates, 
even at the sacrifice of the skulls. (c) Insuring the identification of 
such brains by preserving also the entire animals or characteristic parts 
under the same number. (d) Preserving the brains of Foetuses and of’ 
orderly and educated persons, particularly of blood-relations. (e) Em- 
ployment of the most perfect methods of removal, preservation, prepara- 
tion, and study, including a simple and correlated terminology. (f) Be- 
ginning with the mesal aspect rather than with the lateral or dorsal. 
(g) Providing that those best qualified by nature and training for the 
elucidation of the many and complex fissural problems should devote 
themselves thereto continuously for considerable periods. 
REASONS WHY ORDERLY, EDUCATED AND FAIRLY PROSPEROUS 
WHITES SHOULD LEAVE THEIR BRAINS FOR SCIENTIFIC 
PURPOSES, WITH SUGGESTIONS FOR FORM OF BRAIN BEQUEST. 
By Burt G. WILDER. Cornell University. 
From the nature of the case most of the human brains hitherto pre- 
served or studied have come either from individuals recognizably de- 
fective in respect to senses, intellect, character, or capacity ; or from indi- 
viduals notably superior or peculiar; or from members of other races 
than the white. Descriptions have tacitly or expressly assumed the 
existence of a normal or standard condition. Such a standard cannot be 
claimed to exist at present. Its determination is very desirable with 
reference to both defectives and the eminent; likewise with reference to 
other races, particularly the black; likewise for the sake of formulating 
the distinctions between the human fissural pattern and that of the other 
Primates. 
There are suggested certain improvements in the Form of Bequest 
hitherto employed by the writer. 
Of brains of orderly educated persons there are now preserved in the 
Neurologic Department of Cornell University thirteen, nine male and 
four female. There have been bequeathed seventy, forty-seven male and 
twenty-three female. Of the total number, eighty-three, seventeen are 
or have been physicians and thirty-three have had other degrees. Four- 
teen are or have been college professors and five teachers in schools. 
The speaker deprecated the recent publication in the daily press of sensa- 
tional items and erroneous, even preposterous, statements, opinions and 
