THE MALE AND THE FEMALE MIND 237 



man, even making allowance for the difference in the 

 weights of the entire body. We learn also that the 

 frontal lobes (admittedly the main seat of mental 

 activity) bear about the same relative proportion to 

 the rest of the cerebral hemispheres in women as in 

 men. Meinert, Mercier, and others hold that the 

 frontal region in women is relatively a little less 

 developed than in men, but Professor Mall tells me 

 that he has found the area of the frontal region in 

 women to bear just the same relation to the remain- 

 ing areas of the hemispheres as in men. I am unable 

 to see that the data available from anatomical studies 

 of this kind throw any real light on the psychology 

 of men and women. The difference of organization 

 between the male and the female brain must lie 

 mainly in variations in the representation of different 

 functional regions and in consequent variations in the 

 arrangements and connections of the numerous types 

 of nerve cells that are concerned with consciousness. 

 To expect to gain any insight into these intricate 

 structural arrangements by gross observations on 

 brain weights is mere folly. On the other hand, the 

 best methods of investigation now open to us are so 

 difficult and laborious, so inadequate in comparison 

 with the problem to be solved, that it is no reflection 

 on anatomical science that it has not essayed really 

 fundamental researches into the fine structural 

 differences that probably determine the divergences 

 in the psychical characters of men and women. 

 Indeed, the failure to make serious trials in this field 



