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XV. On the Brain of a Bushwoman ; and on the Brains of two Idiots of European 
Descent. By John Marshall, F.B.S., Surgeon to University College Hospital. 
Received June 18, — Read June 18, 1863. 
The chief purpose of the present paper is to describe the convolutions of a Bushwoman’s 
brain, and also those of the two smallest human idiot brains yet on record, belonging 
respectively to a microcephalic woman and boy of English parentage. But other points 
of interest, such as the weight, size, general form, and internal structure of these brains 
and their several parts, are likewise noticed; and, in the case of the idiots, such 
information is prefixed as could be collected concerning their feeble mental and bodily 
powers. 
The attention which has recently been directed to the study of the cerebral anatomy 
of man, as compared with that of the quadrumanous animals, and the acknowledged 
scantiness of our information concerning the brain in the various races of mankind, 
induced me to request several medical friends residing in our colonies, to endeavour to 
procure certain specimens for me. 
From my former pupil, Mr. John Edward Dyer, now practising in Cape Town, I 
received in April last, in part fulfilment of a promise made to me in the previous 
August, the entire head of a Bushwoman duly prepared according to my instructions. 
I most cordially acknowledge my obligations to him. 
As a guarantee of the authenticity of the specimen, the entire head was to be sent 
with the brain in it. For this purpose, the neck was divided below the larynx; some 
strong spirit was injected into the carotid and vertebral arteries ; the skull was trephined 
over each parietal bone, and the dura mater carefully slit open, so as to allow the 
spirit to percolate into the cranial cavity. The head was then put into a tin case, which 
was filled with spirit, hermetically closed by soldering, and despatched to England 
without delay. On opening the case on its arrival, no decomposition was apparent in 
any part of the preserved head ; but the cerebellum was afterwards found to be some- 
what softer than the cerebrum, owing probably to an accidental want of success in 
injecting the vertebral arteries, so that less spirit had been directly conveyed to the 
posterior parts of the encephalon. 
Having secured, for further identification, a plaster cast of the entire head, and four 
photographic views of it, half the size of nature, viz. a front, back, and two profile views, 
I proceeded, by means of a longitudinal and other sections of the skull, to remove a 
sufficient portion of the left half of the cranium and dura mater to expose the corre- 
sponding side of the brain, still covered by the cerebral arachnoid and pia mater and 
mdccclxiv. 3 x 
