Anatomy and politics / by W.E. Le Gros Clark.

  • Clark, Wilfrid E. Le Gros (Wilfrid Edward Le Gros), 1895-1971.
Date:
[1936?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Anatomy and politics / by W.E. Le Gros Clark. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    efEective along other lines. The negro appears so different from the white man that we inevitably assume that the difíerence is really fundamental and not merely one of superficialities. Yet if you dissect a negro and compare his organs one by one with those of a European, there is no startling contrast in the more deeply situated tissues to be demonstrated. Certain anomalies of muscles and arteries may be slightly less uncommon in the negro—certain organs may weigh slightly more or less on the average. It is possible that a detailed study of en¬ docrine functions may elicit quite important difíerences which might go some way to explaining the physiological basis of differences in pigmentation, in body propor¬ tions, etc. Speculation in this field has been rife for many years now, but un¬ fortunately we are almost completely lacking in sound evidence which might support or demolish the theories which have been built aroimd the suggestion of hormonal control of evolution.^ Certainly recent events suggest that the negro is in no way inferior to the white man in his physical abilities. The magnificent accomplish¬ ments of the negro athlete, Jesse Owens, in the Olympic Games led one Sunday paper to aver that Owens has revolutionised the speed events and has opened up entirely new possibilities for the human race. It is to the brain that we turn with most interest in making a comparative study of such sharply contrasted human types as the white man and the negro. Since the progressive elaboration of the cerebrum is the outstanding feature of the later phases of human evolution, and since it represents the physical basis of mental activities, we may expect the brain to give some indication of evolutionary and intellectual status. We know that the average brain-weight and cranial capacity of the negro are somewhat smaller than those of the European—but this does not carry us very far. It suggests at first sight a less efíicient cerebral mechanism, but actually it tells us nothing definite in this regard. We have only to think of the Eskimo, who can claim a larger brain than the European, and yet, so far as we know, he is not superior to the European in intellectual performance. Of course the factor of social environ¬ ment and conditions of life generally must be taken into account. Daily life in the Arctic can give very limited scope for higher mental powers. Perhaps if the Eskimo population were bodily transported to an environment favourable to the expression of intellectual potentialities they would manifest an intellectual superiority far surpassing our own level of attainment. Perhaps the fortuitous migrations of early man in response to the climatic changes during the Ice Age have led accidentally to the marooning in the Arctic circle of the very sub-species which evolutionary development had marked out for superman —^an evolutionary tragedy terrible to contemplate. We may perhaps console ourselves with the thought that when we have annihilated each other by devastating international wars we shall leave the field clear for the migration south into Europe of the big-brained Eskimo, who will build a new civilisation far superior to that which we try to enjoy now ! Apart from the actual size of the brain, the question arises whether there are qualitative difíerences in the brains of well-defined racial types. I must here refer to the work of Gordon, and his colleague Vint, in Kenya colony—partly because it 1 See S. Zackerman, Hormones and Evolution. Man, Vol. 36, 1936. 4