TO RELATIVE CAPACITY OF RACES, 205 



little over 50 oz. ; circumference, 52 cent. 5 mill.; occipito-frontal 

 diameter, 31 cent. 7 mill.; transverse diameter, taken between tlie 

 ears, 31 cent. 8 mill.; height, 14 cent. If the internal capacity is 

 accepted without any correction, it would yield 57 oz., Lut if allow- 

 ance be made, as in the actual weighing of the brain, for the 

 abstraction of the dura mater and fluids, of say 8 per cent., this 

 would reduce it to about 52-5, or nearly the same weight as that of 

 the mathematician. Gauss. Professor Welcker deducts from 11-6 to 

 14 per cent., according to the size of the skuU ; Dr. J. B. Davis 

 recommends a uniform deduction of 10 per cent. If we apply the 

 latter rule, it will reduce the estimated weight of Dante's brain to 

 51-3 oz.* 



Another interesting example of the skull of an Italian poet is that 

 of XJgo Foscolo, a cast of which was taken on the transfer of his 

 remains to the Church of Santa Croce at Florence. Though only 

 fifty years old at the time of his death, the skull was marked by 

 "the entire ossification of the coronal, sagittal, and lambdoidal 

 sutures, and that atrophy of the outer table, manifested by a depres- 

 sion on each side in the posterior half of each parietal, leaving an 

 elevated ridge in the middle, in the position of the sagittal, which is 

 but rarely observed except in extremely advanced age."t Sir Henry 

 Holland, who knew the poet intimately, describes him as resembling 

 in temperament the painter Fuseli, " passionately eccentric in social 

 life." Full of genius and original thought, as the wi-itings of Foscolo 

 show him to have been, he " was fiery and impulsive, almost to the 

 verge of madness." f He died in England in obscurity and neglect ; 

 but a regenerated Italy recalled the memory of her lost poet, and 

 transferred his remains to Santa Croce's consecrated soil. The 

 estimated size of his brain is given as 1426 cub. cent., equivalent to 

 87 cub. in. internal capacity, which corresponds to a weight of brain 



* The use of different standards of weights and measures, and of diverse materials for 

 determining the capacity of the skull in different countries, greatly complicates the researches 

 of the craniologist. Some pains have been taken here to bring the various weights and mea- 

 surements to a common standard. In attemptmg to do so in reference to the weight of brain 

 of Italy's great poet, the following process was adopted : It was ascertained by experiment 

 that 912 '5 grs. of rice, well shaken down, occupied the space of 1000 grs. of water. Hence 

 3"1321 lbs. rice=3'4324 water. Multiplying this by 1'04, the s.g. of brain, the result is the 

 capacity of the skull, viz., 3 '5697 lbs., or 57 oz., as given above. In this and other investi- 

 gations embodied in the present paper, I have been indebted to the valuable co-operation of 

 my friend and colleague. Prof H. H. Croft. 



t Dr. J. B. Davis, Supp. " Thesaurus Craniorum," p. 7. 



I Sir H. Holland's " Recolleetions of Past Life," p. 254. 



