SEPTE5IBKR IS, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



371 



auothev laboratory esiiccially dosifnied for suoli 

 a purpose. 



In recent discussions in Science it is ap- 

 parent that some of the correspondents were 

 ignorant of the conditions which have pre- 

 vailed since 1898 at the Tortugas. 



The station is now a naval coaling base and 

 a large and comfortable tug makes regular 

 trips twice a week to and fro between the 

 Tortugas and Key West, leaving at 8 a.m. 

 and arriving at about 2 p.m. Even during 

 the writer's earliest visits to the region it was 

 never necessary to charter a vessel in order to 

 proceed from Key West to the Tortugas, as 

 has been implied by one of the correspondents. 



The climate of the Tortugas is cooler than 

 that of the Bahamas, owing to their smaller 

 land mass and the refreshing influence of the 

 ocean breeze. In both Bahamas and Tortugas 

 the breezes throughout the months of May to 

 August are usually so gentle that one may 

 make studies of the windward sides of the 

 reefs on almost any day, using very small 

 rowboats. The yellow fever quarantine sta- 

 tion was abolished at the Tortugas in 1899, 

 and there are practically no mosquitoes on 

 Loggerhead or Bird Keys. 



Although the community at the Tortugas 

 is small the social conditions are pleasant, for 

 people of culture and education are sure to 

 be found among the naval officers and their 

 families, and indeed, the writer recalls with 

 keen pleasure many most enjoyable hours 

 spent in company with one of the keepers of 

 the lighthouse. The community is sufficiently 

 small not to distract, but yet large enough to 

 render pleasant and profitable the few leisure 

 hours which may be enjoyed by one engaged in 

 marine research. The Tortugas is in tele- 

 graphic connection with Key West, and a 

 naval surgeon is stationed at Fort Jefi'erson. 

 Alfred Goldsborough Mayer. 



nf IJU' braiii-wciglil of the Japanese was con- 

 tineil to a few statistics reported by Doenitz* 

 (1874), Taguehit (1881) and Suzuki:!: (1892), 

 comprising in all 130 brains. These were 

 nearly all of ]>ersons who were decapitated in 

 the time df the ' Meiji.' The average brain- 

 weight of 1(10 males was found by Taguchi to 

 be 1,;?.")(3 gms. ; while Doenitz gives 1,337 gms. 

 for 10 male subjects. Professor K. Taguchi, § 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



THE BRAIN-WEIGHT OF THE JAP.WESE. 



Investigations concerning the weight of the 

 brain in the non-European races have hitherto 

 been exceedingly limited. All that was known 



Fig. 1. Chart showing distribution of 374 male 

 •Japanese brain-weights (continuous line) as com- 

 pared with 1.012 German brain-weights (brolven 

 line) of the Bischoff-^Marchand series. For con- 

 venience in comparison, both series are tabulated 

 on a basis of 100 cases each. 



of Tokyo University, recognizing the need of 

 fuller statistics, began ten years ago to record 

 systematically brain-weights together with 

 data concerning stature, age and body-weight. 

 His researches are based upon 597 subjects ; 

 421 males and 17G females, mostly from the 

 hospitals. The average brain-weight of 374 



* Doenitz. ' Mitth. d. deutsch. Gesellsch. f. 

 Natur. u. Viilkerk, de Ostasiens,' Yokohama, 1874. 



t ' Kaiboranyo,' Vol., 1881, p. 18. 



tTokijo Medical Gazette, VI., 1892, p. 518. 



§ K. Taguchi. ' On the Weight of the Encephalon 

 of the Japanese,' Sei-I-Ktcai Medical Journal. 

 Tokyo, Vol. XXII., Nos. 1, 2 and 3, 1903. Also 

 in Nettrologia, Vol. I., No. 5, 1903. 



