1S38.J 



On the Brain of the Negro^ i^c. 



187 



4.— On the Brain of the Negro, compared with that of the European and 

 Orang-Outang.~By Dr. Frederick Tiedemann, Professor of Ana- 

 tomy and Physiology in the University of Heidelberg, and Foreign 

 Member of the Royal Society. 



[A Paper under the above title has appeared in the Philosophical 

 Transactions the Royal Society, Part 11. for 1836 : the following 

 account of it is from the Magazine of Popular Science.'] 



Few subjects have been treated more vaguely and inconclusively 

 than the causes of the alleged inferiority of the negro to the Cauca- 

 sian race of men, both in respect to physiological structure and mental 

 capacity. The most degraded negro tribes have been assumed as 

 standard specimens of the whole race ; and, even with respect to these, 

 the imperfection of organization has been assumed as a proof of men- 

 tal inferiority ; and this, in its turn, as a justification of the white Eu- 

 ropean, in still further degrading them, both mentally and morally, by 

 the most crael slavery. 



Notwithstanding that almost every writer on general physiology has 

 ventured his assertions respecting the negro race, and a few accident- 

 al observations have been made on the form and magnitude of the 



organ of mind," no one has fairly entered upon the investigation in 

 such a way as to give reason to hope for any general satisfactory con- 

 clusion, before Professor Tiedemann. The general opinion has been* 

 as is well expressed by -Mr. Lawrence, that " in all the particulars 

 just enumerated [the characters of the Ethiopian variety of manj, the 

 negro structure approximates unequivocally to that of the monkey. 

 It not only differs from the Caucasian model, but is distinguished from 

 it in two respects ; the intellectual faculties are reduced, the animal 

 features enlarged and exaggerated." The extensive series of obser- 

 vations made by Professor Tiedemann perfectly contradict this assump- 

 tion ; and in order to accomplish this investigation in the most satis, 

 factory manner, he has examined the most celebrated museums both 

 on the Continent and in Great Britain. 



The human brain is absolutely larger than that of any other animal, 

 the whale and elephant excepted ; although, relatively to the size of the 

 body, it is exceeded by that of the sparrow and many other small sing- 

 ing birds, as well as several of the smaller apes. The superiority, 

 therefore, of the human faculties is not to be sought in the relative or 



