Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899: Volume LVVarious
Science
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, August 1899: Volume LV
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
------------------+----------+---------+---------
| English. | German. | French.
------------------+----------+---------+---------
| | |
Brain weight | 1.120 | 1.117 | 1.125
Skull capacity | 1.179 | 1.126 | 1.164
Stature | 1.081 | 1.078 | 1.069
------------------+----------+---------+---------
In other words, men's skulls contain about eight per cent more and
their brains weigh four per cent more than women's, even allowing for
the difference in height. So, too, there is a uniform increase of
cubic capacity from the skulls of the Australians (75 cubic
centimetres) up to the Teutons (93.5 cubic centimetres).[14] The same
authority gives the average weight of brain in a number of
brachycephalic individuals as 1,314 grammes, as against 1,287 grammes
for dolichocephalic cases.[15] Professor Pearson points out that the
higher the caste in India the broader the skull, the Brahmans being
highest, with an index of 78.86, according to the measurements of
Risley. The same writer gives a long list (page 290) of the indexes of
skulls of some thirty-seven races, ranging from Australians at the
bottom of the list, with 70.34, and headed by mediæval Jews (only
twelve skulls), with an index of 84.74. Every indication seems to
point out that in races where progress depends upon brain rather than
muscle the brain-box broadens out as a natural consequence. Little
investigation has as yet been made as to the influence of brain
development on the form of the skull, but what little has been done
all points in the same direction. Dr. Giulio Chiarugi[16] has made
some careful measurements of twenty-one brains, and has shown that in
every instance there is much greater complexity of the cerebral
convolutions in the brachycephalic as compared with the
dolichocephalic skulls, in which the brains were contained. From the
nature of the sutures of the skull it is tolerably obvious that if
brain capacity produces an enlargement of brain, the consequent
internal pressure on the skull will be lateral and tend to produce
brachycephalism. The application of all this to the case of Jews seems
obvious. If they had been forced by persecution to become mainly
blacksmiths, one would not have been surprised to find their biceps
larger than those of other folk; and similarly, as they have been
forced to live by the exercise of their brains, one should not be
surprised to find the cubic capacity of their skulls larger than that
of their neighbors. When it is remembered that they are, owing to
their persecutions, the shortest of all European folk, their relative
superiority in brain comes out even more strikingly.
[Footnote 14: Topinard, Éléments d'Anthropologie, 1885, p. 612.]
[Footnote 15: Ibid., p. 568.]
[Footnote 16: La Forma del Cervello umano e le variazioni
correlative del Cranio, Siena, 1886.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account