Civilisation and cerebral development : some observations on the influence of civilisation upon the development of the brain in the different races of man / by Robert Dunn.

  • Robert Dunn
Date:
[1866]
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Civilisation and cerebral development : some observations on the influence of civilisation upon the development of the brain in the different races of man / by Robert Dunn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    development, which accord with, and, indeed, are found to indicate and correlate corresponding differences in their psychical activities. He dwells on the striking contrast which is presented between the simple, smooth, and symmetrical convolutions, in both the hemi- spheres, on the superior frontal regions of the brain, in the inferior races, and that of the unsymmetrical character, and of the great and intricate complexity of the same convolutions among those of the highest. The illustrious Tiedemann is constrained to admit that in the brain of the Negro the anterior lobes are more pointed and nar- row than in the European, and that the gyri and sulci in both hemispheres are far more symmetrical also, so that, in this re- spect, they resemble the brain of the ourang-outang. The brain is narrow, and its great deficiency is in its anterior lobes; the moral and religious regions are more fully developed, and so, too, are the posterior lobes, though not so fully as in the European. Tiedemann, indeed, dwells on the fact, that in the case of the Hottentot Venus who died at Paris, the narrowing of the anterior part of the hemispheres was still more remarkable than in the Negro.* “Fortunately,” says Professor Huxley, “Gratiolet has * Dr. Carl Yogt, in his seventh lecture “ On the Comparison of the German and Negro,” quotes the following remarks from Dr. Pruner-Bey, who, as Physician to the Viceroy of Egypt, had ample opportunities for observation on the brain of the Negro:— “ The narrow and elongated brain of the Negro always presents on the surface a brown coloration, reflecting from a considerable injection of venous blood. The superficial veins are very thick ; the grey substance presents internally a clear brown coloration; the white substance is yel- lowish ; the cortical grey substance which covers the hemispheres is less thick than in the white man. Viewed in front, the brain presents a rounded apex; viewed from above, the parts seem coarser and less manifold than in the White. The anterior and parietal convolutions seem less deep, flattened, excepting the third convolution, which rather protrudes on the frontal sur- face. On tracing the convolutions backwards, we find fewer of those parietal folds which render the brain in the White a perfect labyrinth. The con- volutions on the middle lobe seem raised, but supine and coarse ; the pos- terior lobe always appeared to me as flattened on the top as the anterior is at the base. The central mass is undoubtedly firmer and more consistent in the Negro than in the White. In the brain of the Negro the central gyri are like those of a foetus of seven months, the second are still less marked. By its rounded apex and less developed posterior lobe, the Negro brain re- sembles that of our children, and by the protuberance of the parietal lobes, that of our females. The shape of the brain, the volume of the vermis and of the pineal gland, assign to the Negro brain a place by the side of that of the white child.” Dr. Carl Vogt further remarks—“ That Huschke mentions some other differences. The Sylvian and Rolando fissures are more perpendicular than in the brain of the European ; the anterior lobes are shorter, the gyri coarser, the chief anterior convolution broad, but all without islands. Huschke arrives at the conclusion, that in the Negro brain both the cerebrum and
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