Studies upon the Chinese brain. 103 



After a lapse of over two years Dr. F. X. Dercum published a 

 full description of two Chinese brains, in the „Journal of Nervous and 

 Mental Diseases" for July 1889 l ). 



This makes six brains, then, that have been described up to the 

 present time. 



Many of the peculiarities found in these brains I have been able 

 to verity in my study upon this brain, but the probability that they 

 are constant can only be established after sufficient data has been 

 collected from which to deduct racial characteristics that shall be un- 

 varying. 



I shall describe the contour and topography of this brain and 

 then compare it with those previously mentioned. 



In conformity with the shape of the skull the brain was shorter 

 through its longitudinal axis, and longer through its vertical axis, than 

 is usual in Caucasian types, thus giving it a rotund appearance. 



There was marked eversion of the orbital and basi-temporal sur- 

 faces, a point that has been noted in all the brains examined. 



The brain unfortunately was not weighed, but it was of goodly 

 size, a little more bulky than Dr. Dercum's brain No. I, with which 

 I compared it. 



The frontal lobes presented a complex sinuosity of convolutions 

 and multiple fissuration, causing the so called „vegetative repetition" 

 of Parker. 



The parietal and occipital lobes were distinctly separate, and a 

 ,.pli de passage superior interne" was patent on both sides. These 

 last named conditions are common among thè anthropoid apes, the „pli 

 de passage" being constant save in Hylobates and Ateles, according to 

 Dercum, but has never been found in the human brain, save in those 

 of idiots. 



Dr. Dercum found this condition in four brains out of seventy-five 

 that he examined from the Institution for Feeble Minded Children at 

 Elwyn, Pa.; and in the case of the brain of an idiot of eleven months, 



a ) His cases being also furnished him through the courtesy of Dr. Formad. 



