4 C. W. M. Poynter 



be recognized as typifying an earlier stage, we have yet to deter- 

 mine its significance. And lastly, after determining the morpho- 

 logical significance of a variation, its relation to the function of the 

 brain as a whole or in part is a problem whose solution would 

 have bearing on a great many questions of Criminal Anthropolog}'. 

 Much of the confusion that has arisen in reference to the question 

 of a " criminal type " has been due to the failure of the observer to 

 realize that an irregularity discovered in a criminal brain might 

 be an " individual " characteristic, a peculiarity of race, or even a 

 frequent condition in normal brains, and therefore not indicative 

 of delinquency. 



Back of every study are the questions of how far the different 

 arrangement of convolutions and fissures of the brain has a true 

 morphological significance, of what law determines these varia- 

 tions, of which should be considered individual and which univer- 

 sal, of which indicate culture and which degeneration. 



While it is my purpose to deal with the subject of morphology, 

 it has been so entwined with the question of function, especially 

 where criminal brains are to be considered, that reference to this 

 phase of the subject seems to be necessary. 



The names of Gall and Spurzheim are connected with the first 

 conception of cerebral localization, but to Broca is due the credit 

 of the first fact in the science. His discovery was followed by 

 the studies of Hitzig (1874), Fritsch (1870) and Ferrier (1873) 

 which, while combatted as are all new ideas, were confirmed by a 

 great number of investigations in the fields both of physiology and 

 of pathology. 



Hardly had the idea of Jocalization of function gained current 

 recognition when the work of Flechsig (1898), Campbell (1905) 

 and Brodmann (1905) confirmed the idea of selection of func- 

 tion and added new interest to the questions of surface anatomy. 



While the field of cerebral morphology was almost neglected, 

 craniology, the " spoiled child " of anthropology, filled the shelves 

 of our museums with skulls and loaded our literature with great 

 masses of figures and series of heterogeneous facts. The useless- 

 ness of such work for our purpose was indicated by Huxley when 

 he said, " It should be an opprobrium for any ethnological 



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