Address to the Anthropological Section / William Turner.

  • William Turner
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Address to the Anthropological Section / William Turner. 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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    cliimpanzee, it would seem that ilie brain-weight in these apes ranges from 11 to 15 oz. (812 to 42G gnu.), and the brain-weight appears to be iiiuca about the same in the Gorilla. These figures are greatly below those of the human brain, even in so degraded a people as the dwarf Bush race of South Africa. They closely approximate to the weight of newly born male infants, in whom, as has just been stated, the average weight was 1T67 oz. For the purposes of ape-life, the low brain-weight is sufficient to enable the animal to ])erform every i'unction of which it is capable. Its muscular and nervous systems are so accurately co-ordi- nated that it can move freely from tree to tree, and swing itself to and fro ; it can seize and regain objects with great precision, and can ,«earch for and procure its food. In all these i-espects it presents a striking contrast to the infant, having an almost,'similar brain-weight, which lies helpless on its mother’s knee. Another line of evidence, of which we may avail ourselves, in order to test the relative size of the brain in the different races of men and in the large apes is to be obtained by d-termining the internal capacity of the cranium. Examples of the brains of different races (except Europeans) are few in number in our collections, but the crania are often well represented, the volume of the crvity in which the brain is lodged can be obtained from them, and an approximate conception of the size and weight of the brain can be estimated. In pursuing this line of inquiry, account has of course to be taken of the space occupied by the membrane.s iirvesting the brain, by the blood vessels and the cerebro-spinal fluid. A small deduction from the total capacity will have to be made on their behalf. There is a general consensus of opinion amongst craniologhts that the mean internal capacity' of the cranium in adult male Europeans is about 1,500 c.c. (91’5 cub. in.). The mean capacity of the cranium of fifty Scotsmen that I have measured by a method, which I described some years ago,’ was 1,493 c.c. (91T cub. in.). The mn.st capacious of these skulls was 1,770 c.c., and the one with the smallest capacity was 1,240 c.c. Thus, in a highly civilised and admittedly intellectual people, the range in the volume of the brain-space amongst the men was as much as 5.30 c.c. in the specimens under examination, none of which was known or believed to be the skull of an idiot or imbecile, whilst some were known to be the crania of persons of education and position. In tw'enty'- three Scotswomen the mean cajiacity was 1,325 c c., and the range of variation was from a maximum 1,625 to a minimum 1,100 c.c.—viz,, 525 c.c. Again I have taken the capacity, by the same method, of a number of crania of the Australian aborigines, a race incapable apparently of intellectual improve- ment beyond their present low state of development. In thirty-nine men the mean capacity was only 1,280 c.c. (781 cub. in.). The maximum capacity was 1,514 c.c., the minimum was 1,044 c.c. The range of variation was 470 c.c. In tw enty-four w'omen the mean capacity was 1,115 6 c.c., the maximum being 1,240 and the minimum 930, and the range of variation was 310 c.c. It is noticeable that in this series of sixty-three Australian skulls, all of which are in the Anatomical Mu.=emn of the University of Edinburgh, eight men had a smaller capacity than 1,200 c.c., and only four were above 1,400 c.c. Of the women’s skulls ten were below 1,100 c.c., four of which -were between 900 and 1,000 c.c., and only three were 1,200 c.c. and upwards. Time does not admit of further detail on the cranial capacities of other races of men. Sufficient has been said to show the wide range w’hich prevails,from the maximum in the Europeans to the minimum in the Australians, and that amongst persons presumably sane and capable of discharging their duties in their respective spheres of activity; for we must assume that the crania of the Australians, having the small capacities just referred to, were yet sufficiently large for the lodgment of brains competent to perform the functions demanded by the life of a savage. From a large number of measurements of capacity w'hich I have made of the skulls of the principal races of men, I wtuld draw the following conclusions: F’irst, that the average cranial capacity, and consequently the volume and weight of the brain, are markedly higher in the civilised European than in the savage races; second, that the range of variation is greater in the former thati in the
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