Civilisation and cerebral development : some observations on the influence of civilisation upon the development of the brain in the different races of man / by Robert Dunn.

  • Dunn, Robert, 1799-1877.
Date:
[1866]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Civilisation and cerebral development : some observations on the influence of civilisation upon the development of the brain in the different races of man / by Robert Dunn. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    CIVILISATION AND CEREBRAL DEVELOPMENT. [Reprinted from the Transactions of the Ethnological Society.] In my last communication to this Society, On the Psychological Differences which exist among the Typical Races of Man, I dwelt on the importance of assiduously studying, and of carefully contrasting and comparing, their cerebral organisations, as a means to the better understanding and elucidation of the mental differences which exist among and characterise them. I had then, and I have still, to lament and regret that, notwithstanding the labours of Gratiolet, and the chart which he may be said to have provided for our guidance as a standard for comparison, so little has been done in the prosecution of such an interesting subject of inquiry. It must be confessed, that the brains of the typical human races have yet to be scrupulously examined, and to be carefully contrasted and compared with each other; and that ethnic psychology is still a desideratum. In the present paper, I wish to submit to your consideration some observations on the influence of civilisation,—that is, of outward circumstances, social states, and intellectual culture, on the development of man’s cere- bral organisation. But, in the first place, before proceeding to do this, and as a basis for my observations, I would premise the following postulates1st. That the brain or the encephalon is the material organ of the mind; in other woi'ds, that the vesi- cular matter of the encephalic ganglia is the material substratum, through which all psychical phenomena of whatever kind, and among all the races of mankind, are manifested in this life. 2nd. That there exists a close correspondence in form and size between the cerebrum or hemispheres of the brain and its outward covering—the skull; in other words, that the development of the brain moulds and fashions, giving configuration, form or shape, and volume to its bony envelope, so that the varying forms of the human cranium indicate, as outward and visible signs, with cer- tain well understood qualifications, corresponding differences or changes in shape and size of the cerebral substance within. 3rd. That the genus homo is one, and that all the races of the great family of man are endowed with the same intuitions, sensa- tional, perceptive, and intellectual,—the same mental activities; in other words, that they all have, as constituent elements, the germs or original principles, in common, of a moral, religious, and B