well aware that it is the fashion to say that the brains of all races of mankind are alike; but in this, as in other cases, fashion is not quite at one with fact.
Soemmering and Tiedemann are directly at variance with respect to the relative proportions of the size of the nerves to the brain in the higher and in the lower races of mankind; and, as respects the relative proportions of the cerebrum and cerebellum, the ratios deducible from Tiedemann's measurements give so small a difference, that though it is rather in favour of the existence of a larger proportional size of the cerebellum in the lower races, I do not think it can be depended upon.
But, with regard to the third especially Simian cerebral character mentioned above, Tiedemann's observations (though, as the negro's advocate, he endeavours to explain them away) are definite, and to the point:—
"The only similarity between the brain of the negro and that of the orang ontang is, that the gyri and sulci on both hemispheres are more symmetrical than in the brain of the European. It remains, however, to be proved whether this symmetry is to be found in all negro brains, which I very much douht."—L. c, p. 519.
One would like to know the ground of Professor Tiedemann's doubts, because the only other observation he details, bearing on this subject, leads him to precisely the same conclusion. Thus, at p. 316 of the same memoir, I find the express statement:—"This [symmetry] is particularly visible in the brain of the Bosjes woman." Indeed, the fact must at once strike every one conversant with the ordinary appearance of a European brain, who glances at Pl. xxxiv. of Tiedemann's Memoir, in which a view of the Bosjesman brain referred to is given.
Fortunately, M. Gratiolet has also particularly described and carefully figured this brain (which is that of the "Hottentot Venus;" who died in Paris, and had the honour of being anatomized by Cuvier), and his remarks upon the subject are exceedingly important and instructive:—
