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PROFESSOR TIEDEMANN ON THE BRAIN OF THE NEGRO. 
W eight of the Brain of a Negro. 
Camper’s assertion,, that the facial angle is smaller in the Negro than in the Euro- 
pean, has led many anatomists to the supposition that the Negro has a less quantity 
of brain than the European. There are but few observations on the weight of the 
brain of the Negro, and these do not agree with this supposition. 
The brain of a Negro boy fourteen years old, weighed, according to Soemmerring*, 
2 lbs. 10 oz. 3 dr. avoirdupois, or 3 lbs. 6 oz. 6 dr. troy weight. The brain of an- 
other handsome tall Negro, about twenty years of age, weighed 2 lbs. 13 oz. 4 dr. 
avoirdupois, or 3 lbs. 9 oz. 4 dr. troy weight^. My honoured friend Sir Astley 
Cooper gave me the following account on the weight of the brain of a Negro. 
“ The weight of the brain of a large Negro was 3 lbs. 1 oz., or 49 oz. The general 
weight of the brain of man is from 37 to 52 oz.” 
The Negro whose brain I have examined and drawn, was a short thin man, twenty- 
five years of age, hardly five feet high. He died at Li&ge of the smallpox, and was 
dissected there by my son-in-law, Professor Fohmann, and my son Henry. The brain 
and the spinal marrow were sent to me preserved in alcohol. The brain, separated 
from the spinal marrow below the medulla oblongata, weighed 2 lbs. 3 oz. 2 dr. 
We can also prove, by measuring the "cavity of the skull of Negroes and men of 
the Caucasian, Mongolian, American, and Malayan races, that the brain of the Negro 
is as large as that of the European and other nations. 
Researches on the Size and Capacity of the Cavity of Skulls. 
In order to determine the capacity of the cavity of the skull I pursued the fol- 
lowing method. 
1. I weighed the skull with or without the lower jawbone. 
2. I then filled the cavity of the skull with dry millet-seed, through the foramen 
occipitale magnum. The skull was then weighed again, carefully filled. 
3. I then deducted the weight of the empty skull from that of the filled one, and 
so obtained the capacity of the cavum cranii. 
The following Tables record the results obtained from a number of Negro, Euro- 
pean, Mongolian, American, and Malayan skulls, weighed in this manner. 
I only weighed those skulls of whose authenticity I was convinced, and I have 
mentioned the collections and museums where they are to be found, so as to enable 
any one to convince himself of the truth and correctness of my researches. 
* Ueber die Verschiedenheit des Negers vom Europaer, S. 19. 
t Soemmerring hidiself allows that the brain is not always so large in Europeans. 
