I. The primitive features of the cerebrum, with special reference to the brain of the bushwoman described by Marshall

Abstract

In 1864 John Marshall, of University College Hospital, London, published in the ‘ Philosophical Transactions ’ an account of a brain of exceptional interest, that of a Bushwoman. The original documents and photographs relating to this brain were recently handed to Professor Elliot Smith by his daughter, Miss Marshall, On his advice these documents have been studied anew.* In making his drawings from these photographs the lithographer made some slight changes which convey an erroneous impression of the primitive features that confer exceptional importance on this Bushwoman’s brain. The progress of knowledge of this subject since 1864 enables us to interpret the photographs in another way and so make this interesting evidence available for the interpretation of such archaic forms of brain as are revealed in the endocranial casts of Pithecanthropus , Sinanthropus , and Eoanthropus . The original photographs represent the dorsal, ventral, lateral, anterior and posterior aspects of both hemispheres and the medial aspect of the left hemisphere. There is no photograph of the medial aspect of the right hemisphere. In addition to the photographs of the brain there are photographs of the head before the removal of the brain, and fortunately a photograph of the left hemisphere in situ within the cranium. Marshall’s photographs are exactly the same size as the lithographic figures ; and he states that the figures agree in size with the preserved brain. He also gives measurements of the cerebrum taken from intracranial casts. There is a small discrepancy between the length of the cerebrum as measured on the photograph showing the brain in the cranium and the figures in his table. The amount of shrinkage is shown in fig. 25, Plate 3. In estimating the form and size of the outline of the endocranial cast of the Bushwoman figured in this paper, Marshall’s maximum figures are taken; allowing for this possible error, his illustrations enable us to reproduce the form fairly accurately. In Marshall' s table of measurements, in which he contrasts the European brain with the Bushwoman’s, the European brain is smaller in certain dimensions. This indicates that he specially selected an abnormally small European brain for comparison.