A SKETCH OF HIS LIFE 37 



other bones and fragments of bones. From these he was able 

 to determine several of the more important physical characters 

 of that ill-fated people who have left but a single monument, the 

 word " hammock." 



In the paper in question, which was read before the National 

 Academy in November, 1887, Brooks gives a series of admirable 

 plates artistically illustrating the skulls described, and reaches 

 several conclusions, which may be summarized as follows: The 

 bones are thick, massive and dense; the skulls are of good size. 

 They are highly brachycephalic but at the same time artifically de- 

 formed in a way which would increase their brachycephalic shape. 

 There is no reason to think that the people were gigantic, though 

 they were probably of large size. From certain similarities to the 

 remains of the inhabitants of southern Florida, it is probable that 

 the Lucayans belonged to the same race. 



Studies on Heredity. 18 As early as 1876 in a paper entitled 

 "A Provisional Hypothesis of Pangenesis" Brooks began to deal 

 with questions of heredity and variation. His thinking in this 

 direction took shape and led in 1883 to the publication of a volume 

 under the title of "The Law of Heredity." The central point in 

 the theory here presented is the conviction that the reproductive 

 elements are, contrary to the usual opinion, not alike in function. 

 In support of this conclusion the author draws arguments from 

 the facts that hybrid offspring resulting from reciprocal crossings 

 are often very different; that the offspring of a male hybrid and 

 the female of a pure species is much more variable than the off- 

 spring of a female hybrid and the male of a pure species; that a 

 structure which is more developed or of more functional impor- 

 tance in the male parent than it is in the female parent is very 

 much more apt to vary in the offspring than a part which is more 

 developed or more important in the mother than it is in the father. 

 These and other facts convince Brooks that the ovum and sperm 

 cell are not only different morphologically, but that they differ 

 profoundly in function as well. 



18 Professor H. V. Wilson, University of North Carolina. 



