It is altogether vain to interpose that this acknowledged anatomical defect is, after all, only slight. The difference between the brains of a fish-monger and of a Socrates may be only slight--an ounce or so in the scale, a line or so in depth of convolution; yet it corresponds to the interval between mediety and the vertex of genius. Such differences are vanishingly small, or inexpressibly great, according to the origin of reckoning. And herewith we uncover the fallacy that lies so snugly hidden away in the phrase "comparative insignificance." Undoubtedly! If we reckon from the amoeba, the witling seems scarcely distinguishable from the wit; but if we reckon from the average of humanity, they start asunder like the poles. The summits of the Himalayas are only some four or five miles above the valley of the Ganges; estimated from the centre of the earth, this difference is little more than one-thousandth of the whole--a difference hardly appreciable to the eye, even when armed with a microscope; and yet it means the difference between the impenetrable jungle and the inaccessible minarets of the roof of the world. The difference between some "Rafael" and some imitation may be very slight and escape the uncritical eye, and yet make out the distinction between a masterpiece and a daub. Illustrations abound. It is a multitude of trifles that constitutes perfection; but perfection is not a trifle. That the recognized and constated superiority of the European brain is slight, by no means implies that the "mental expression" of this superiority may not be illimitably grand. Since the question of brain-weights is extremely important, it does not seem fair to the reader to furnish him only vague, general statements. Accordingly, we here submit something more definite, even though it appear like a long parenthesis inserted in the body of our discourse. From the autopsies of 405 Whites, Blacks, and intermediates, made by Surgeon Ira Russell, the following conclusions have been drawn by Dr. Sanford B. Hunt, surgeon of United States Volunteers in the Civil War: "(1) The standard weight of the negro brain is over five ounces less than that of the white. (2) Slight intermixture of white blood diminishes the negro brain from its normal standard, but when the infusion of white blood amounts to one-half (mulatto), it determines a positive increase in the negro brain, which, in the quadroon, is only three ounces below the white standard. (3) The percentage of exceptionally small brains is largest among negroes having but a small proportion of white blood." Of these 405, there were 141 Blacks, and only twenty-four Whites; the others were mixed. We may omit these latter, and may substitute the results of 278 other autopsies of Whites, and form this table: 55- 50- 45- 40- 35- Average Max. Min. 60 oz. 60 55 50 45 40 35