West Riding Lunatic Asylum : medical reports / edited by J. Crichton Browne.

Date:
1871
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: West Riding Lunatic Asylum : medical reports / edited by J. Crichton Browne. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    thicker than those of races which have undergone civilisation, and that the damages effected by compression of the head are, there- fore, more of an osseous and less of a nervous character. The natives of Van Diemen's Land break wood on their heads with impunity; this is also the case amongst the Penhuenches in South America and Indians in Brazil. The skulls of Australians are thicker than those of Europeans. Herrera mentions that the Spanish conquerors of America were not able to split the skulls of the aborigines of Cuba and Haiti with one stroke of the sword, and Delagorgue describes the remarkable thickness of the skulls of the Zulu Kaffirs. In the sixth and last place, it must be remembered, and this consideration is, perhaps, as important as any, that the nervous system is much less delicate and susceptible in uncultivated than in civilised races. The cerebrum of a savage can endure without detriment what would be fatal to that of a man descended from a line of civilised ancestors. The thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns, and their brains also are in some respects weakened. What Herbert Spencer calls the progres- sive aggregation of psychical states that are connected in experience, takes place not only in the individual, but in successive generations. Physical organisms inevitably establish a co-ordination of psychical states corresponding with the external circumstances by which they are surrounded. Suc- cessive increments gathered from the experiences of successive generations, strengthen and multiply and expand such psy- chical states. A structural modification of the nervous centres is gradually brought about, parallel with their enlarged acti- vities. As we shall hereafter see, the dimensions of the brain are increased, and as we must now remark its susceptibility is also augmented. As thought becomes more swift and complex, its instrument becomes more delicate and fragile. As the rude implements of primitive life are to the marvel- lous machines of our present civilisation, so is the brain of the savage to that of the civilised man; in both are there an infinitely higher intricacy, and combination, and refinement, and in both is there a greater liability to damage and derange- ment. We may without hesitation assert that no infantile brain amongst ourselves could tolerate the compression to which the brains of infant Indians are harmlessly subjected; were the
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