The figures obtained by Mr. Hunt from the calculations given by several authors for 278 brains of European Whites agree sufficiently well with the above. The average of the former is 1403 grms. (49·55 oz.). The maximum is that quoted above, 1842 grms. (64·97 oz.); the minimum falls to 963 grms. (33·97 oz.), which is very remarkable from its lightness, being below that which, in Wagner’s table, seems to involve idiotcy. The results obtained by Mr. Hunt upon his Black and White fellow-countrymen, present, as regards comparison, a special interest. The brains of twenty-four American White soldiers gave an average weight of 1424 grms. (43·2 oz.) in round numbers. The maximum was 1814 grms. (63·98 oz.); the minimum 1247 grms. (43·98 oz.). The brains of 141 Negroes gave an average of 1331 grms. (46·98 oz.), which is greater than the results of investigations made in Europe. The maximum was 1507 grms. (53·15 oz.); the minimum 1013 grms. (35·73 oz.).

The observations of Mr. Hunt upon 240 crosses between the White and the Negro lead to interesting conclusions The following is the result:

grms.oz.
In crosses having¾ white blood,the average weight
of the brain is		139049·03
” ”½ ””133447·05
” ”¼ ””131946·52
” ”⅛ ””130846·13
” ”1/16 ””128044·79

We see that the weight of the brain diminishes proportionately with the white blood. But it is especially curious to observe, that in crosses still possessing a tolerably strong proportion of superior blood, the weight falls below that of pure Negroes. The average was taken from twenty-two individuals, and the difference, 86 grms. (3·03 oz.), is too great not to be taken into serious consideration. We should say that this is a phenomenon identical with that presented by colouring. Certain crosses, in whom the black blood predominates, are of a darker hue than the original Negro race.

To exhaust the little that we know of exotic races, I need only to add that in a Hottentot examined by Wyman the brain weighed 1417 grms. (49·96 oz.). This weight, which is greater than that of the average of Europeans, affords one more proof of that intercrossing to which I have so often called attention, and which has, in this case, perhaps a deeper meaning than elsewhere.

Since the publication of Gratiolet’s admirable work Sur les plis cérébraux de l’homme et des primates, the study of cerebral convolutions has assumed considerable importance in anthropology, although it has been somewhat exaggerated. The investigations of MM. Dareste and Baillarger show that the development of these convolutions depends to a great extent upon that of the encephalon itself, and the influence exercised by stature at once explains certain facts which had formerly been the cause of some embarrassment. Under conditions similar in other respects, the brain of small races would be less convoluted than that of large races.

But, apart from this influence, it appears as a well established fact, that in savage races the number and complication of the cerebral convolutions are less than in intelligent and civilized races. Intellectual culture would seem then to exercise an entirely special action upon the cortical layers, and to favour their development.

The known extremes at the present day of the character in question are offered by the Hottentot Venus and Cuvier. The brain of the former is the simplest that has ever been observed in an intelligent person. It recalls that of an idiot. The brain of Cuvier, which unfortunately has neither been modelled nor drawn, was, as we are told by the eminent anatomists who saw it, distinguished by the extraordinary complication of the convolutions and the depth of the sulci. Moreover, each convolution was, as it were, doubled by a kind of rounded ridge. In spite of these exceptional cases, no one would surely dream of placing the great naturalist in any other species than that to which his contemporaries belong. Neither can we consider the simplification of the brain of the Hottentot Venus as a specific character.

When comparative observations have sufficiently multiplied, we shall doubtless find more or less striking characters in the relative proportions of certain regions of the brain. For example, if Dr. Nott’s observation be correct, the cerebellum in the Red-Skin extends beyond the cerebrum, while the latter, it is well known, extends beyond the cerebellum in the White and Negro. The same organ is longer in the Negro and broader in the White.