This

may

be

seen on a large scale in nations deprived of liberty, especially if reduced to slavery. 'Diminuti capitis,' as the Roman law said in reference to Roman slaves.

In the way indicated, some branches or races of the human species, under very favourable geographical, climatical, and other circumstances, sexual selection, &c., have in the course of ages come to have larger and better formed brains and skulls than other branches.

As regards size and weight of the whole brain, experiences have been gained showing that eminent men, those who have manifested force of character, as well as of intellect, have had very large brains. In such instances, however, the brains have been found well proportioned, the different lobes fully developed. If mere size and weight of brain on the whole, without reference to its form, were held to give a large amount of mental activity in all directions, how is to be explained, it may be asked, that many low and criminal natures, whose heads are large in general, are yet found to be inherently deficient in moral and intellectual power ? The answer is plain. Although their heads on the whole are large, their great size is owing to an abnormal development of the basilar and occipital regions; whereas the frontal and coronal are relatively, and often absolutely, very small. Thus the deficiencies mentioned are readily explained.

Ethnological Craniometry

39

However, the value of size and weight of brain on the whole, i.e. of an average or normal size, for the display of general mental activity, becomes apparent when we look to the brains of idiots. Whenever the adult human head is less than thirteen inches in circumference, idiocy is the invariable concomitant.1

In the conviction that on the whole, and in general the form of the skull is the same as that of the brain, and that the latter is the organ of the mind, physiologists and members of anthropological and ethnological societies in different countries, have of late years more than ever busied themselves with measuring skulls, ascertaining their cubic contents by weighing shot or other substances with which they have been filled, in studying the relative development of the different skull bones, &c. Such proceedings would have little meaning, unless they had reference to characteristics of mental life; and this, indeed is shown to some extent to be the case, especially in regard to the different races of men, and the somewhat differing mental qualities of the two sexes.

1 of the brains of eminent men weighed after death, that of Cuvier was found to be 4 lbs. 11 oz. 26 grains-of Dupuytren, 4 lbs. 10 oz., whereas the brain of an idiot fifty years old was only 1 lb. 8 oz.; and of another forty years of age, only 1 lb. 11 oz. The mean weight of brains is said to be 3 lbs. to 3 lbs. 11 oz.* Professor Luschka states the weight of the brains of adult microcephalic idiots to be only one-third of that of ordinary adults.†

R. R. Noel. 'Grundzüge der Phrenologie,' p. 51. † 'Archiv für Anthopologie,' vol. v. p. 497.

The classification of heads, however, as dolichocephalic, and brachicephalic (long heads and short heads), now so much the fashion, throws but little light on the characters of races, and still less on the dispositions and capabilities of individuals; and Professor Aeby has well remarked that it would be better to classify heads of human races as steno = and eurycephalic (narrow and wide heads), than in the way just mentioned.1 This observation of a distinguished anatomist agrees with my experiences respecting European heads, for I have found more striking differences in the natural character connected with narrow and wide heads, than with long and short. I have known some long-headed men to be very stupid, and others very clever, and have gained similar experiences in regard to short heads. Indeed the longest head I have ever measured is that of a Saxon suicide, who was remarkably deficient in understanding-using the word as including reflective power. (See plate iii. fig. 4). The great length of

his skull, is owing to an abnormally large occipital region, whereas the frontal region is extremely retreating, narrow, and shallow-and what I mean by the latter term will presently be explained. But the great attention now bestowed by anthropological

1 Op. cit. p. 250.

2 I have measured the skull, which was preserved in the Anatomical Museum of Dresden (now removed to Leipzig), as well as the head soon after death. The length of the latter was 8g Eng. inches.

associations on cranioscopy, although as yet more with reference to the anatomical characteristics in the skulls of different races of men, than to the mental life of the latter, may in the end prove of much value. The special observations of the basilar bones of the skull, and their relationship to the facial bones, have shown that there is a well-marked difference, besides prognathism, in the skulls of negroes and those of civilized Europeans; for in the former the position of the large occipital hole (foramen magnum) on the atlas-the uppermost of the spinal vertebræ-displays a nearer approach to the skulls of the lower vertebrates than it does in the skulls of the latter.1

With reference to the bones at the base of the skull, I may mention here that a German professor who has written a popular work on human physiology, considers cretinism to be owing to the too early closing of those three parts which form the basilar bone (os basilaris), and the obliteration of its sutures. This bone is compared to the keystone of an arch, whose form necessarily has an influence on that of the whole structure. A too early closing and thickening of skull bones, as likewise particular bone diseases, may undoubtedly to some extent impede the development of the brain;

1 Archiv für Anthropologie,' vol. iv., p. 287.

2 'Das Leib des Menschen,' von Prof. C. Reclam. Stuttgart, 1870, p. 76 and fol.

but as regards the skulls of cretins, many other circumstances besides the early closing of the basilar bones must be taken into consideration in seeking an explanation of this form of idiocy. In cretins generally there is a great and inherited want of constitutional vigour, the result of an accumulation, through many generations, of circumstances most unfavourable for general health, and particularly for that of the brain and nervous system. In the Alps cretins are generally found in low, confined, or morassy situations, often in narrow valleys, deprived to a great extent of sunshine. Isolation, want of mental exercise, coarse and chiefly fat-generating food, and drinking water, often greatly impregnated with lime -which in the constitutionally feeble may have an influence in the hardening of bones, must be included amongst the causes of cretinism. Professor Reclam confounds cause and effect, and has paid no attention to the remarkably deficient and shallow development of the frontal bone in the skulls of cretins, which extensive observations in districts where they abound have shown me to have been an invariable characteristic with these miserable cripples-both bodily and mentally. (See plate iv. fig. 2).

I have dwelt so long on this subject, because not only the abnormal skulls of cretins, but many other forms of the skull and facial bones, are now held to be mainly owing to peculiar developments of the basilar bones.