i S 4 PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 



drawn so often between the Eskimo and certain early prehistoric European types, the 

 conclusions of these authors are very important, and fortunately they are quite definite. 

 Speaking of the skull, Dr. Oetteking * defines that of the Eskimo as a modification of 

 the Mongolian type. Specific mongoloid characters are distinct, and in certain in- 

 stances strongly marked. With these features others of a generalised or primitive 

 type are blended. Dr. Hrdlicka 2 is even more direct in his statements. And although 

 he clearly takes full account of environment and nutrition as factors capable of modify- 

 ing the form of various organs, he states nevertheless that all Eskimo crania " present 

 absolutely no racial affinity with either the diluvial or posterior European crania, and 

 their comparison, except for contrasts should once for all be abandoned. The kinship 

 of the Eskimo is with Asia and America." Whether Dr. Hrdlicka 3 will have any 

 further information to give on the last point mentioned by him is not yet known, but 

 in 1912 he made an expedition to Siberia, where he discovered examples of a blond 

 Mongolian type. His detailed description of this is awaited with interest. A word of 

 caution may be uttered meanwhile in reference to recent and widely-circulated reports 

 announcing the discovery of a tribe of (so-called) " white " Eskimo. 



Observations on the Brain. The anthropological work thus far laid under contribution 

 has been almost entirely anthropometric and craniometric. But investigation of the 

 other anatomical systems makes steady progress. In particular, the brain has received 

 much attention. In this connection the researches of Mr. Bean 4 on the American 

 negroes, of Dr. Sergio Sergi 5 on the Hereros (South-west African negroes), of Professor 

 Weinberg 6 on the Poles and Esthonians, and of Dr. Kohlbrugge 7 on the Malayan 

 peoples, have resulted in enormous additions to the stock of information previously 

 collected. Yet it must be admitted that the naked-eye appearances fail to provide a 

 basis for the satisfactory identification of a given specimen, so great is the variability 

 in almost every detail of the surface anatomy. In fact, examples of lowly conformation 

 may occur in almost any region of the surface, so that the racial factor, though doubtless 

 present, cannot be regarded as very potent in comparison with other factors differing 

 from the racial one in regard to their distribution. Such considerations, added to 

 others based on a study of the weight of the brain in relation to the total body-weight, 

 have had the tendency of directing attention more specially to the minute structure of 

 the cortex of the organ. Conspicuous among recent publications on this subject, 

 the latest work of Dr. Brodmann 8 demands special notice here. Dr. Brodmann's 

 researches have been directed to a large number of animal forms, and his conclusions 

 are furnished consequently with a correspondingly solid basis. Of the results none is 

 more important than that which confirms a claim already made in favour of recog- 

 nising absolutely distinctive though microscopic features in a certain region of the 

 cortical surface of the human brain. The relation of that region to certain markings of 

 the cerebral surface is to some extent a matter of secondary importance. Further 

 research is in progress with the object of ascertaining whether the features in question 

 are modified by the factors of racial difference. But as yet no definite statement can 

 be made as to the results of this enquiry. 



5. The Study of Heredity and Environment. It remains to consider some very 

 striking developments of anthropological and more particularly of anthropornetric 

 research, which may be regarded as the outcome of recent advances in the study of 

 heredity and the influence of environment. It was inevitable that mankind should 

 be recognised as a subject for enquiry in the novel researches generated by the redis- 



1 Oetteking, Abhandlungen der Konigl. Zoologischcn und Anthropologisch-Ethnologischcn 

 Museum zu Dresden, Band xii, No. 3, 1908. 



2 Hrdlicka, American Mus. Nat. Hist., Anthropological Papers, vol. v, Part II, 1910. 



3 Hrdlicka, XlVth Internal. Cong, of Prehistoric Anthropology, Geneva, 1912. 



4 Bean, American Journal of Anatomy. 



5 Sergio Scrgi, " Cerebra Her erica" in Schultzc, Ergebnisse eine Zoologischen Forschungs- 

 reise, etc., Jena, 1909. 



6 Weinberg, Zeitschrift fur Morphologic und Anthropologie, Band viii, p. 123, 1904. 



7 Kohlbrugge, "Kuhur und Gehirn," Biologisches Centralblatt, Band xxxi, No. 8, 1911. 



8 Brodmann, Anatomische Anzeiger. Erganzungsheft, 1912. 



