

Notes and Memoranda. 887 



A paper was read by Dr. Frankland and Mr. Baldwin Duppa on 

 the formation of compounds of the organic radicles, Ethyle, Methyle, 

 and Amyle with the metal Mercury. 



Methide of mercury is formed when an amalgam of sodium and 

 iodide of methyle are allowed to re-act upon each other, the chemical 

 action being established by the addition of a small quantity of 

 acetic ether, which appears to remain unchanged during the pro- 

 cess. This compound is a direct combination of the metal Mercury 

 with the organic radicle, Methyle C 2 H 3 . In appearance it re- 

 sembles water, but is remarkable for its great specific gravity, being 

 rather more than three times the weight of that liquid ; consequently 

 flint glass containing a large proportion of lead floats on its surface. 



NOTES AND MEMORANDA. 



Beain ov a Bushwoman and Beains or Idiots. — Mr. John Marshall, E.R.S., 

 Surgeon to University College Hospital, has a paper in the Proceedings of the 

 Royal Society on the above subjects. The Bushwoman was aged, and about five 

 feet high — unusual for her race. Her cranium is a long narrow ovoid, less doli- 

 chocephalic than that of the negro. The frontal sinuses absent, and cranial 

 walls very thick. The cranial capacity is 6064 cubic inches, equal to 35 oz. av. 

 of water, which, for her height, is decidedly, but not very small. The probable 

 weight of the recent brain is 31/5 oz., or 8'5 oz. less than the average of Europeans 

 of same age. The ratio of cerebrum to cerebellum is usual 7'7 to 1 ; and that of 

 cerebrum to body probably as 1 to 52 ; of cerebellum to body as 1 to 418, instead 

 of the usual ratios of 1 to 41, and 1 to 328. Cerebrum defective in width and 

 especially in height, fissures more complex than in Hottentot Venus, but much 

 less so than in the European ; they are rather more complex on left than right 

 side of brain, and widely separated from those of the ape's brain. All the convo- 

 lutions proper to man were present, but much more simple and less marked with 

 secondary sulci. Mr. Marshal remarks that there is a greater difference between 

 the Bushwoman's cerebrum and the highest ape's cerebrum, than between it and 

 the European cerebrum ; but a less specific difference between it and the European 

 than between the chimpanzee and the ourang outang. There is, however, less dif- 

 ference between the Bushwoman and the highest ape than between the latter and 

 the lowest quadrumanous animal. 



Of the idiots' brains, one was that of a woman aged forty-two, the other of 

 a boy of twelve. The former could walk, though badly, nurse a doll, and say a 

 few words ; the latter could neither walk, handle anything, nor articulate a word ; 

 the idiot woman's cerebrum weighed 7*6 oz., the cerebellum 1*95 oz. ; the pons 

 with medulla oblongata 42 oz. The boy's cerebrum 5"85 oz., cerebellum 225 oz., 

 pons, etc., 4 oz. " These are the two smallest brains, the weights of which have 

 been recorded. At first sight the woman's brain resembled that of a chimpanzee : 

 but close comparison shows great differences. The cerebellum especially is of 

 very great size, forming about one-fourth of the entire mass, and instead of being 

 covered by the cerebrum has about '35 inch of it exposed posteriorly." Mr. 

 Marshal says that " these idiot cerebra have fewer parts and less complex than 

 those of normal brains, and he considers their peculiarities due to arrest of deve- 

 lopment at some period of foetal existence. The convolutions in the idiot's brains 

 are more Bimple than those of the higher apes, and approach, in this respect, 

 those of the lower quadrumana. But the points of difference between the idiot's 

 brains and those of the quadrumana are very decided. They are human cerebra, 

 although so imperfectly developed." 



Subdivided Lightning-. — At a recent meeting of the Societe Helvetique des 

 Sciences Naturelles, Professor Dufour mentioned the curious fact, that in last 



