[15] COLLECTING ANTHROPOLOGICAL INFORMATION HRDLICKA. 



body, and to functional, including mental, activities, needs further 

 elucidation; and as to the investigation of histological and chemical 

 differences and their signification, scarcel}^ a beginning has been made. 



As to the brains of other races but little is known. For instance, 

 the brain of a North American Indian has never been described, nor is 

 there, so far as known, a good specimen of such a brain in existence. 

 And this is more or less the case with regard to all other primitive 

 tribes. Even of such peoples as the Chinese, Hindoos, and negroes 

 the number of brains well preserved or described is very limited. 



As there is no ample and generally available collection of racial 

 brains in existence and such a collection is particularly desirable in 

 this country, an effort is being made to establish one in the Division 

 of Physical Anthropology of the U. S. National Museum. 



There are abundant opportunities in the United States for obtaining 

 and preserving brains of American and foreign born whites of all 

 grades of intellectual development, and those of the American negroes, 

 which will be of increasing interest on account of the intellectual pro- 

 gress and mixture of this element in the American population. There 

 is no doubt that there could also be secured, now and then, the brain 

 of an American Indian, although the matter is more delicate and diffi- 

 cult. In the Philippines and other United States dependencies the 

 opportunity is favorable, and exceptional!}^ good occasions for acquir- 

 ing negro and probably Indian and other brains will be presented 

 during the construction of the Panama Canal. 



With such prospects there is a substantial hope that if the proper 

 persons can be acquainted with the wants of the National Museum 

 there will before long be a most valuable gathering of brains in the 

 collections there. 



Through the present cooperation between the Departments of 

 Anthropology and Biology in the National Museum, the racial brain 

 collection is being supplemented by a similar one of zoological charac- 

 ter. A good beginning has been made; at the end of the year 1903, 

 five months after the beginning of the collection, the total number of 

 preserved human and other brains in the Museum reached nearly one 

 hundred, and at the end of July, 1904, this number has a little more 

 than doubled. 



DIRECTIONS TO COLLECTORS. 



Answers to the following questions should accompany each brain: 

 a. Name and location of tribe? 

 1). Sex of the individual ? 



c. Pure blood or mixed? 



d. Real or approximate age ? 



e. Cause of death? 



f. Length of body ? 



