708 [June 18, 



XXII. " On the Brain of a Bushwoman ; and on the Brains of 

 two Idiots of European Descent/' By JOHN MARSHALL, 

 F.R.S., Surgeon to University College Hospital. Received 



June 18, 1863. 



(Abstract.) 



The author having described the mode of preparation and dissection 

 of the three brains, divides his paper into two parts, one relating to 

 the Bushwoman and her brain, and the other to the idiots and their 



brains. 



1. The Bushwoman's brain. 



The Bushwoman was aged, and about 5 feet high unusual for her 

 race. 



The form of the cranium is a long narrow ovoid less dolicho- 

 cephalic, however, than the Negro skull ; the face is high-cheeked, 

 and the nose very small and flattened. The frontal sinuses are 

 absent, and the walls of the cranium are thick so thick that its in- 

 ternal capacity is less than would be expected from its outward form 

 and size, being equal to 35 oz. av. of water, or 60 '64 cubic inches, 

 which, for the height of the Bushwoman' s body, is decidedly, but 

 not very small. 



The actual weight of the preserved encephalon proved to be 

 21*77 oz. av., which would probably represent, as the author shows, 

 31 % 5 oz. for the weight of the recent brain enclosed in its mem- 

 branes. Allowance being made for the height of the body, this is 

 less by 8*5 oz. than the average weight of the brains of European 

 females of the same age, as estimated from the Tables of Dr. Boyd, 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions for 1861. 



The cerebrum proper probably weighed, in its recent state, 

 27*25 oz., the cerebellum 3*45 oz., and the pons with the medulla 

 oblongata *8 oz. 



The ratio of the cerebrum to the cerebellum was as usual, 7*7 to 1 ; 

 that of the cerebrum to the body was probably as 1 to 52, and that 

 of the cerebellum to the body as 1 to 418, instead of the usual ratios 

 of 1 to 41, and 1 to 328. 



An examination of the general form of the cerebrum shows that 

 it is small, but long defective in width, and especially in height. 

 Its outlines and surfaces are angular and flat instead of rounded and 



