PROBLEMS IN HUMAN ANATOMY 381 



thus obtained are to be used only with the full appreciation of the 

 fact that the material ordinarily available for examination in the 

 dissecting-room belongs in all countries to a social group which 

 contains the highest percentage of poorly developed and atypical 

 individuals. The conclusions, therefore, that can be drawn from 

 the investigations of this material must always be weighted by its 

 peculiar nature. To illustrate what is here meant by the peculiar 

 character of this material, we may take as an instance the bearing 

 of the results obtained from material of this sort on the problem of 

 the brain-weight in the community at large. It must be admitted 

 that the figures which we have at our command for this measure- 

 ment are, with the exception of one short list, derived from the 

 study of individuals belonging to the least fortunate class in the 

 community, and it is not fair, therefore, to carry over these data 

 and apply them directly to the average citizen who is of the normal 

 type and moderately successful in the general struggle for exist- 

 ence. From what has been said, it is plain that much of the work 

 now being carried on in the dissecting-room comes very close to the 

 lines which have been followed for years by the physical anthropo- 

 logists; yet, because these have for the most part concerned them- 

 selves with the study of the skeleton, have limited their comparisons 

 to the various races of men, and have developed no interest in 

 surgery, they have for a long time stood apart, and only recently 

 joined forces with the professional anatomists. This step has cer- 

 tainly been to the advantage of anatomy, and as one result of it, 

 anatomical material not previously utilized will now be treated by 

 statistical methods. But all the work to which reference has here 

 been made is on the body after death. So manifest are the dis- 

 advantages arising from the conditions which are thus imposed 

 that the necessity is felt on all sides of extending our observation 

 as far as possible to the living individual. As an example of such 

 an extension, we have the determination of the cranial capacity 

 and brain-weight in the living subject which has resulted from the 

 labor of Karl Pearson and his collaborators. 1 The methods which 

 have been employed for this purpose are capable of giving as accu- 

 rate results as are ordinarily obtained from post-mortem examina- 

 tions, and, moreover, have the advantage of being applicable at 

 any time to any group in the community which it is desired to 

 investigate. 



To redetermine, as far as possible, from studies on the living, 

 all the relations which have been made out post-mortem, becomes 

 a very immediate and important line of work. 



But even under the general limitations which apply to the dis- 

 secting-room material, it is desirable to refine our knowledge of 



1 Pearson and collaborators, Phil. Transactions of the Royal Society, 1901. 



