In some respects the Australian brain preserves important characteristics, which indicate the genesis of the more modified or more specialized conditions seen in the brain of modern man. The length of the hemispheres and the small occipital development are unquestionably extremely primitive characters, which, among others, remind us of the common ancestry of man and ape. In the brains of the more cultured peoples, processes are at work, which are completely remodelling portions of the important organ, and thereby making it more and more unlike the anthropoid or simian brain. By such modifications in the occipital region, the human brain is gradually ridding itself of a feature strongly developed in the monkey’s brain, which has been named the sulcus lunatus. German anthropologists call this sulcus “Affenspalte,” which means “Monkey-Cleft,” i.e., a cleft or sulcus in the posterior portion of the brain of primates, which is strongly developed in the monkeys, but disappearing in the brain of man. In the Australian’s brain, the sulcus lunatus can often be more or less distinctly discerned, and its presence there affords us valuable evidence when tracing the remnants of the sulcus in the brains of other races, including those of the modern Europeans.
The posterior lip of the sulcus lunatus is occasionally operculated in the Australian’s brain. In the parieto-occipital region, the outer convolutions are depressed and covered by an operculum-like flap; but this condition is also occasionally observed in European examples.
Another simian feature, rarely seen in European brains, is rather frequently found in Australian, in the shape of a rhinal fissure. It should be observed, however, that the European embryo clearly shows this fissure in the brain as it is developing.
The occipital bone varies in its appearance. The impressions made upon the surface, where, during the life-time of an individual, the strong muscles of the neck were attached, are, as a rule, well developed. The minor posterior-rectus and complexus muscles of the neck often leave deep hollows in the occipital bone at the points of their insertions.
A bony process is often noticed in front of the big foramen, which joins the occipital condyles; this is an atavistic condition, by means of which an extra articulation is occasionally effected between the occiput and vertebral column. The condyles vary considerably in their elevation above the occipital bone. The large foramen is mostly oval in shape, but often has a little median notch in its posterior margin.
CHAPTER VII
COLOUR OF ABORIGINAL’S SKIN
Unsuitable nomenclature—Aboriginal of Australia not a “Nigger”—Colour normally chocolate-brown—Lighter in infancy—Variations of shade due to several causes—Colour-classification schemes obsolete—Pigmentation very superficial in aboriginal’s skin—“White blackfellows”—Pigment destroyed by disease and lesion—Actual colour—Its intensity and distribution—Effect of environment on aboriginal’s skin colour—Climatic influence.
The Australian aboriginal is popularly spoken of as a blackfellow; at times one even hears him referred to as a nigger! Strictly speaking, the former appellation is not in accordance with obvious fact, and the latter in addition is scientifically grossly incorrect. The aboriginal is no more black than the average modern European is white, and, apart from his darker colour, he certainly has not many negroid features which we do not also possess, at any rate more or less sporadically. Under normal conditions, the colour of the Australian is a velvety chocolate-brown, somewhat lighter or more coppery in the female than in the male. The skin of a newly-born piccaninny is very much paler, with a distinct tint of fleshy red about it, which many people maintain reminds one of the skin of young murines, as it appears before it developes fur. For this reason, too, the inexperienced observer often accuses an aboriginal mother of infidelity; the colour of the infant’s skin, when compared with that of its parent, indeed suggests a mixing of her blood with that of another lighter coloured race. The child’s skin, however, soon darkens in colour; and, within a few weeks, attains a shade not appreciably different from that of the adults of its tribe.