A Study of Cerebral Anthropology 13 



§IV. BRAINS OF VARIOUS RACES 



The studies of the cerebral cortex to discover ethnological 

 differences has so far proved cjuite disappointing. Stieda (1909), 

 in analyzing the work of Kohlbriigge (1908), finds himself in 

 agreement with that author in the opinion that there are no racial 

 distinctions in convolutions and fissures. Weinberg (1896) col- 

 lected a list of twenty characters which have been suggested by 

 various authors as being of possible significance. He presents a 

 comparative study of Poles and Letts which shows some inter- 

 esting percentage variations. His conclusions as to the value of 

 these as ethnological characteristics are unsatisfactory: " Wir 

 nicht wissen ob sie existiren oder nicht." The studies of Smith 

 (1904c), while extremely valuable from a morphological stand- 

 point, are not of ethnological value at present; for, as he pointed 

 out, a determination of what variations are of value and what are 

 " individual " must be first determined. 



Duckworth (1907) presented a splendid comparative study of 

 the brains of Australian aborigines, but the significance of varia- 

 tions from a racial standpoint was less a question of considera- 

 tion than that of determining the degree of psychic development. 



Many reports of single brains, or of a very few, from various 

 races, are scattered through the literature, but no uniform method 

 of description has been followed. Should the scheme of publica- 

 tion adopted by Retzius in his great monograph, Das Menschen- 

 hirn, be followed by other authors there would soon be available 

 a literature which would be invaluable for comparative studies. 

 There can be no doubt that so far investigators have failed to 

 discover any constant factors of variation that will distinguish 

 races of similar culture. Many of the evidences of inferiority in 

 the races of low mental development have been found by ob- 

 servers whose work shows carelessness and superficiality. Differ- 

 ences exist between the brains of highly civilized and of low races, 

 but it is a question how many of these variations are purely 

 ethnological and how many are functional. 



The suggestion has been brought forward frequently that the 

 brains of the so-called lower races present a greater variety of 

 variations, which suggest the embryonal or simian condition, than 



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