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XXIII. On the Brain of the Negro, compared with that of the European and the Orang- 
Outang. By Dr. Frederick Tiedemann, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology 
in the University of Heidelberg, and Foreign Member of the Royal Society. 
Received and Read June 9, 1836. 
I TAKE the liberty of presenting - to the Royal Society a paper on a subject which 
appears to me to be of great importance in the natural history, anatomy, and physio- 
logy of Man ; interesting also in a political and legislative point of view. Celebrated 
naturalists, Camper*, Soemmerring'^, and Cuvier^, look upon the Negroes as a race 
inferior to the European in organization and intellectual powers, having much re- 
semblance with the Monkey. Naturalists of less authority § have exaggerated this 
opinion. Were it proved to be correct, the Negro would occupy a different situa- 
* Ueber den natiirlichen Unterschied der Gesichtsziige im Menschen. Berlin, 1792. 4to. 
f Ueber die korperliche Verschiedenheit des Mohren vom Europaer. Mainz, 1784. 8vo. Soemmerring says 
at the end of his paper (p. 32), “ From all that has been said, it does not appear unfair to conclude that in 
general the African Negroes resemble the genus Simia more than the Europeans. 
I Le Regne Animal, tom. i. p. 95. Paris, 1817. “La race negre est confinee au midi de 1’ Atlas ; son crane 
comprime, et son nez ecrase, sonmuseau saillant et ses grosses lb vres, la rapprochent manifestement des singes; 
les peuplades qui la composent sont toujours restees barbares.” 
§ An Account of the regular Gradation in Man, and in different Animals and Vegetables. By Charles 
White. London, 1799. 4to. He says in the conclusions deducible from the facts and observations stated in 
the second part of this essay, p. 83 : 
“ Taking the European man as a standard of comparison on the one hand, and the tribe of Simise on the 
other, and comparing the classes of mankind -with the standards and with each other, they may be so arranged 
as to form a pretty regular gradation in respect to the differences in the bodily structure and economy, the 
European standing at the head, as being furthest removed from the brute creation. 
“ That the African, more especially in those particulars in which he differs from the European, approaches 
to the Ape. 
“ That the characteristics which distinguish the African from the European are the same, differing only in 
degree, as those which distinguish the Ape from the European.” 
Histoire Naturelle du Genre Humain, par F. F. Virey, tom. iii. p. 436. Paris, 1824. “ De l’orang-outang 
il faudroit remonter au Hottentot, puis aux negres, plus intelligents, et enfin k l’homme blanc. Les singes 
semblent btre aussi la racine du genre humain.” 
Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, by W. Lawrence. London, 1819. 
Mr. Lawrence, after he has given the characters of the Ethiopian variety, as observed in the genuine Negro 
tribes, says, p. 363, “ In all the particulars just enumerated, 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 characters are reduced, the animal features enlarged and exaggerated. This infe- 
riority of organization is attended with corresponding inferiority of faculties ; which may be proved, not so 
much by the unfortunate beings who are degraded by slavery, as by every fact in the past history and the 
present condition of Africa.” 
3 s 
MDCCCXXXVI. 
