540 



NA TURE 



[September 26, 1901 



meetings have, as a rule, been well attended, and the discussions, 

 although perhaps on certain occasions somewhat discursive, have 

 never lacked vigour or animation. Prof. Hu.\ley, who presided 

 over the Anthropological Department at the Dublin meeting in 

 187S, ascribed the popularity of the subject to the many open- 

 ings which it afTords for wide differences of opinion between the 

 exponents of its numerous branches and to the innate bellicose 

 tendency of man. As the representative of a country in which, 

 according to the same high authority, this tendency is less 

 strongly marked than elsewhere, and of a race which has so 

 frequently and pointedly exhibited its abhorrence of vigorous 

 language, I trust thst my presence here as President may not 

 react unfavourably on the interest shown in the work of the 

 Section. 



The piesent occasion might appear to be peculiarly appro- 

 priate for my taking stock of our anthropological possessions and 

 summing up the numerous additions to our knowledge of " man 

 and his doings " which have been made during the century which 

 has just passed. Such a task, however, is surrounded with so 

 much difficulty that I shrink from undertaking it. The scope 

 of the subject is enormous, and the studies involved so diverse 

 and so varied that I feel that it is beyond my power to give any 

 comprehensive survey of its development in all its parts. I prefer 

 therefore to confine my remarks to that province of Anthropology 

 within which my own work has been chiefiy carried on, and 

 from this to select a subject which has for some years held a 

 prominent place in my thoughts. I refer to the human brain 

 and the part which it has played in the evolution of man. 



One of the most striking peculiarities of man when regarded 

 from the structural point of view is the relatively great size of 

 his brain. Although with one or two exceptions the several 

 parts of the brain are all more or less involved in this special 

 development, it is the cerebral hemispheres which exhibit the 

 preponderance in the highest degree. This characteristic of the 

 human brain is rendered all the more significant when we con- 

 sider that the cerebral hemispheres cannot be looked upon as 

 being primitive parts of the brain. In its earliest condition the 

 brain is composed of three simple primary vesicles, and the 

 cerebral hemispheres appear in a secondary manner in the shape 

 of a pair of lateral offshoots or buds which grow out from the 

 foremost of these primitive brain-vesicles. 



The offshoots which form the cerebral hemispheres are found 

 in all vertebrates. Insignificant in size and insignificant in 

 functional value in the more lowly forms, a steady increase in 

 their proportions is manifest as we ascend the scale, until the 

 imposing dimensions, the complex structure, and the marvellous 

 functional potentialities of the human cerebral hemispheres are 

 attained. In their development the cerebral hemispheres of 

 man rapidly outstrip all the other parts of the brain until they 

 ultimately usurp to themselves by far the greater part of the 

 cranial cavity. To the predominant growth of the cerebral 

 hemispheres is due the lofty cranial vault of the human skull ; 

 to the different degrees of development and to the different 

 forms which they assume are largely due the variations in cranial 

 outline in different individuals and different races — variations in 

 the determination of which the Craniologist has laboured so 

 assiduously and patiently. 



I think that it must be manifest to everyone that the work of 

 the Craniologist, if it is to attain its full degree of usefulness, 

 must be founded upon a proper recognition of the relation which 

 exists between the cranium and the brain, or, in other words, 

 between the envelope and its contents. 



The cranium expands according to the demands made upon 

 it by the growing brain. The initiative lies with the brain, and 

 in normal conditions it is questionable if the envelope exercises 

 more than a very subsidiary and limited influence upon the form 

 assumed by the contents. The directions of growth are clearly 

 defined by the sutural lines by which the cranial bones are knit 

 together ; but these are so arranged that they admit of the ex- 

 pansion of the cranial box in length, in breadth, and in height, 

 and the freedom of growth in each of these different directions 

 has in all probability been originally determined by the require- 

 ments of the several parts of the brain. 



The base or floor of the cranium, supporting as it does the 

 brain-stem or the parts which possess the greatest phylogenetic 

 antiquity, and which have not undergone so large a degree of 

 modification in human evolution, presents a greater uniformity 

 of type and a greater constancy of form in different individuals 

 and different races than the cranial vault which covers the more 

 highly specialised and more variable cerebral hemispheres. 



To what extent and in what directions modifications in the ' 



form of the cranium may be the outcome of restrictions placed 

 on the growth of the brain it is difficult to say. But, broadly 

 speaking, I think we may conclude that the influence which the 

 cranium, under normal circumstances, independently exerls in ' 



determining the various head-forms is trifling. 



When we speak therefore of brachycephalic or short heads, 

 and dolichocephalic or long heads, we are merely using terms 

 to indicate conditions which result from individual or racial 

 peculiarities of cerebral growth. 



The brachycephalic brain is not moulded into form by the 

 brachycephalie skull ; the shape of both is the result of the same 

 hereditary influence, and in their growth they exhibit the most 

 perfect harmony with each other. 



Craniology has been called the " spoiled child of Anthro- 

 pology." It is supposed that it has absorbed more attention 

 than it deserves, and has been cultivated with more than its 

 share of care, while other fields of Anthropology capable of 

 yielding rich harvests have been allowed to remain fallow. This 

 criticism conveys a very partial truth. The cranium, as we 

 have seen, is the outward expression of the contained brain, 

 and the brain is the most characteristic organ of man ; crania! 

 peculiarities therefore must always and should always claim a 

 leading place in the mind of the Anthropologist ; and this is all 

 the more imperative seeing that brains of different races are 

 seldom available for investigation, whilst skulls in the different 

 museums may literally be counted by thousands. 



Meantime, however, the Craniologist lies buried beneath a 

 mighty mountain of figures, many of which have little morpho- 

 logical value and possess no true importance in distinguishing 

 the finer differences of racial forms. Let us take as an example 

 the figures upon which the cephalic or length-breadth index of 

 the .skull is based. The measurement of the long diameter of 

 the cranium does not give the true length of the cranial cavity. 

 It includes, in addition, the diameter of an air-chamber of very 

 variable dimensions which is placed in front. The measurement 

 combines in itself therefore two factors of very different import, 

 and the result is thereby vitiated to a greater or less extent in 

 different skulls. A recent memoir by Schwalbe * aftords in- 

 structive reading on this matter. One case in point may be 

 given. Measured in the usual way, the Neanderthal skull is 

 placed in the dolichocephalic class ; whereas Schwalbe has 

 shown that if the brain-case alone be considered it is found to 

 be on the verge of brachycephaly. Huxley, many years ago, 

 remarked that " until it shall become an opprobrium to ar> 

 ethnological collection to possess a single skull which is not 

 bisected longitudinally" in order that the true proportions of its 

 different parts may be properly determined we shall have no 

 "safe basis for that ethnological craniology which aspires to 

 give the anatomical characters of the crania of the different 

 races of mankind.'' It appears to me that the truth of this 

 observation can hardly be disputed, and yet this method of 

 investigation has been adopted by very few Craniologists. 



It has become too much the habit to measure and compare 

 crania as if they were separate and distinct entities, and without 

 a due consideration of the evolutionary changes through which 

 both the Ijrain and its bony envelope have passed. Up to the 

 present little or no effort has been made to contrast those parts 

 of the cranial wall or cavity which have been specially modified 

 by the cerebral growth-changes which are peculiar to man. It 

 may be assumed that these changes have not taken place to ai> 

 equal extent, or indeed followed identically the same lines in all 

 races. 



Unfortunately our present knowledge of cerebral growth and 

 the value to be att.ached to its various manifestations is not so 

 complete as to enable us to follow out to the full extent investi- 

 gations planned on these lines. But the areas of cerebral cortex, 

 to which man owes his intellectual superiority are now roughly 

 mapped out, and the time has come when the effect produced 

 upon the cranial form by the marked extension of these areas in 

 the human brain should be noted and the skulls of different 

 races contrasted from this point of view. 



To some this may seem a return to the old doctrine of 

 Phrenology, and to a certain extent it is ; but it would be a 

 Phrenology based upon an entirely new foundation and 

 elaborated out of entirely new material. 



It is to certain of the growth-changes in the cerebrum which- 

 I believe to be specially characteristic of man, and which un- 

 l"Studien Tiber Pithecanthropus erectus" (Dubois). Zcituhrift f. 

 Morf/i. iinii Anthrop., Band i. Heft i, 1899. 



NO. 1665, VOL. 64] 



