belonged to a totally undistinguished individual; then, slightly smaller, the brain of an imbecile, examined by Levinge at the Hants County Asylum, and said to be of normal consistence; then we have Turguenieff, the great Russian novelist, a tall but not extremely large man, with a brain of 2012 grs.; the fourth, 1925 grs., belonged to an ordinary labouring man, and was examined by Bischoff; the fifth, 1900 grs., belonged to a bricklayer; the next, 1830 grs., was the brain of Cuvier, the famous zoologist. The six largest brains of women known (as recorded by Topinard) are: first, that of an insane woman, weighing 1742 grs.; she died of consumption, and her case was recorded by Skae; then comes one of 1587 grs., belonging to a sane woman, who died at the age of 63 (Sims); then another of the same weight, belonging to an insane woman, and recorded by Clapham at Wakefield Asylum; then two cases of 1580 grs., both in sane women, and recorded by Boyd; finally another, also of 1580 grs., which belonged to a medical student who is said to have possessed exceptional ability, and to have shown no signs of insanity, but who committed suicide believing that she had failed to pass her final examination. A large brain is a perilous possession, and — so far at least as this evidence goes — it is even more likely to be a perilous possession in a woman than in a man. A large brain is often inert or dis- ordered, and fails to receive the rich blood-supply it demands; there is much to be said in favour of a small, well-ordered, and active brain. It is probable that great thinkers generally have large brains, but among distinguished men of action a small brain seems to be quite as often found as a large one.
Some light is thrown on the significance of the relative preponderance of nervous tissue in women, by considering the course of the brain's evolution in the two sexes. At birth the boy's brain is larger than the girl's. Boyd, from an examination of about forty cases of each sex, found the average weight 331 grs.
Google THE HEAD. 103 in boys, 283 grs. in girls, a difference of 48 grs., and this is accepted by Topinard (and also by Riidinger) as about the average difference; Mies, however, who has more recently recorded the result of the weighing of a large number of new-born infants, finds that for 79 boys the weight is 339 grs., for 69 girls 330 grs., a difference of only 9 grs. 1 Boyd's measurements give boys a preponderance of brain in relation to body-weight; Mies's figures, founded on larger ex- perience, give a decided preponderance to brain tissue in girls. I think that the fact that most observers have found the brains of new-born boys decidedly larger than those of girls may be very simply explained. Children with unusually large heads — that is to say, the children to whom birth is most likely to prove fatal — are usually boys, and therefore help to raise unduly the masculine average of brain for the new-born; girls are comparatively free from this danger.
The brain grows enormously during the few months after birth, and very rapidly during the first few years of life. While at the age of three months the brain is about the fifth part of the weight of the body, in the adult it forms merely about a thirty-third part. By the age of six months (according to Boyd's fairly large figures) the absolute weight of the brain has doubled in girls, and nearly doubled in boys; by the age of seven years the weight of the brain has quad- rupled in girls, and before the age of fourteen it has quadrupled in boys. The precocity of the female brain in childhood is therefore extremely marked. Even Boyd's figures, which give girls a relatively small amount of brain at birth, show that between the ages of four and seven girls possess larger brains than boys in relation to height. While girls between the ages of four and seven have already gained 92 per cent of their final brain-weight, boys at the same age 1 Wien. Klin. Wochtnschrift, 10th January 1889.
104 MAN AND WOMAN.
104 MAN AND WOMAN.
have only reached 83 per cent The girl's brain grows but little after the age of seven, and has practically ceased to grow by about the age of twenty; the man's brain docs not reach its maximum size until after thirty years of age. Owing to the rapid growth of the brain in the first years of life, it is in childhood, and more especially during the ages of two to four, that both sexes possess the largest amount of brain in relation to height The premature and fallacious maximum in the weight of the brain before the age of twenty, which is found chiefly or exclusively in the female brain by the large series of Boyd, BischofT, and Broca in three countries, seems to show, as Topin- ard points out, 1 that the precocity and extent of brain- growth in women at this early age exposes them to greater chance of death than men, just as boys are more exposed at birth; for it must always be remem- bered that brain-statistics in early life are exclusively founded on those members of the community who have been failures in the race of life; we cannot necessarily argue from them to the successful members of the community who reach adult life. Soon after the age of twenty the average weight of the brain begins to fall; in men there is no notable fall until after fifty-five; in both sexes there is a somewhat rapid decline after this age, and there is some reason to think that in old age men undergo relatively greater brain-loss than women.
The larger amount of brain in women, which we have found to exist after the elimination of fallacies caused by incorrect criteria of proportion, is correlated with the precocity and earlier arrest of growth in women which exists as well for the brain as for the general proportions of the body. Tall people have larger brains, absolutely, than small people; the tallest and largest people, on the average, have the largest brains; but these brains do not increase in the same THE HEAD. 105 ratio as their bodies generally; the figures of Bischoff, Broca, and others, show that as body-height and body- weight increase in both men and women, so the pro- portion of brain decreases. A relatively large mass of brain-tissue is a character which women share with short people generally and with children.
It is time to turn to the question of sexual differ- ences in the relation of the various parts of the brain. In doing this we have to consider the relation of the two hemispheres of the cerebrum, or brain-mantle, to the cerebellum or smaller brain, and to the upper parts of the spinal cord called the pons and medulla oblongata; in the cerebrum we have to distinguish between the frontal lobe in front, the occipital lobe at the back, and the intermediate temporo-parietal region; and we may take these last three sub-divisions of the mantle first It has been justly said by Meynert that sexual distinctions in the brain are much better marked in the relation of its parts to one another than in the organ taken as a whole. But this fact is not well illustrated by the curious manner in which the opinions of brain anatomists concerning sexual differ- ences in the proportion of the cerebral lobes have of late years been turned upside down. Some years ago it was asserted with great emphasis, more especially in Germany, that even from an early period of foetal life there are marked sexual differences in the lobes of the cerebrum, tending to show the great intellectual superiority of man over woman. Burdach considered that men are distinguished from women by the de- velopment of their frontal lobes; Huschke, in 1854, came to the conclusion that woman is a homo parte- talis, while man is a homo frontalis; Rudinger in 1877 found the frontal lobes of man in every way more extensive than those of woman, and sexual differences, according to him, are distinct during foetal life; his pupil, Passet, as recently as 1882, confirmed these results, though in a more modified Google 106 MAN AND WOMAN.
form. It is quite possible to explain these conclu- sions. Individual variations are very considerable; most of these results were founded on very small series of brains; the brain, moreover, is a very difficult organ to examine; and, finally, as it had always been taken for granted that the frontal regions are the seat of all lofty intellectual processes, only a result which gave frontal pre-eminence to men could be regarded as probable.
It is no longer possible to accept the opinion that the frontal lobes are defective in women. Broca exam- ined some 360 brains with great care and uniformity of method; his results show that the whole cerebral hemisphere being taken as 1000, while the propor- tion of frontal lobe in man is as 427, in woman it is as 431; it is only a difference in favour of women of 4 in 1000, but it is enough to show at least a practical sexual equality; on analysing the figures according to age, it is found that while in early adult age men have some frontal advantage over women, this position is decidedly reversed in old age. 1 Among the insane, Crichton- Browne has shown that the proportion of the frontal lobe to the rest of the brain is not less in women, but is even slightly more; 2 Clapham's figures, dealing with some 450 subjects, show practical equality in the sexes; Meynert and Tigges, dealing with a considerable number of brains belonging to the insane, have both found the frontal lobe larger in women. The most reliable and accurate measure- ments made with special reference to this point are probably Eberstaller's. He measured with great care no less than 270 hemispheres belonging to adults (176 male and 94 female), and he found that the upper end of the fissure of Rolando occupies relatively the same place in the two sexes, what difference there is, only 0.5, being in favour of the frontal lobe in women. The results obtained by Professor Cunningham, a 1 Topinard, Anthrop. Gin., p. 580.
2 Brain, vol. ii. pp. 62-64 Google THE HEAD. 107 very cautious and reliable observer, are in exact harmony with those of Eberstaller; so far as he found any sexual difference at all it was in favour of the frontal lobe of women. He also ascertained that the lower end of the fissure of Rolando holds rela- tively the same place on the cerebral surface in the two sexes, and that at no period of growth is there to be found what might safely be called a sexual difference in the fissure. It had been asserted by Passet and others that the fissure of Rolando is longer, absolutely and relatively, in men; measuring the fissure by a thread carefully inserted between its lips, so as to follow all its flexures, Cunningham found, by examining a large number of brains, that (except at birth) there was some advantage, so far as there was any advantage at all, on the part of the female fissure. 1 While it has recently become clear that women have, so far as there is any sexual difference at all, some frontal superiority over men, it has at the same time been for the first time clearly recognised that there is no real ground for assigning any specially exalted functions to the frontal lobes. This opinion had been very widely accepted without any definite reasons at all, and even Hitzig, the pioneer of modern progress in the precise knowledge of cerebral localisation, had given it the weight of his authority by assigning to the frontal lobes the seat of logical thought It is not difficult to account for this ancient notion; there is a deeply implanted feeling in the human mind which associates with " above," " front," " top," more dignified ideas than with " below," " back," " bottom." The frontal region exactly fits in with this implicit mental assumption; it is precisely that part of the body which is most above, to the front and to the top; it is not, therefore, surprising that the centres 1 Professor D. Cunningham, "Contribution to the Surface Anatomy of the Cerebral Hemispheres " (Cunningham Memoirs of the Royal Irish Academy, No. 7), 1892.
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for the highest intellectual processes should have been placed in a position where we can scarcely believe that a quadrupedal craniologist would have placed them; nor is it surprising that it is only within very recent years that we have brought our- selves to believe that the occipital lobes are intimately concerned in so high a process as that of vision. The extreme anterior part of the brain, usually called the pre-frontal lobe, gives no definite reaction to electrical stimulus; the chief definite argument which has been used to support its association with the higher mental functions was an early experiment of Ferrier's, per- formed without antiseptic precautions, which showed that after the removal of these lobes in monkeys there was some apathy and loss of intelligence. In later antiseptic experiments these results were not obvious or not obtained; Horsley and Schafer found that the bilateral removal of the pre-frontal lobes resulted in the animals appearing apathetic, but this condition passed off entirely after two or three days. Subsequently Schafer repeated the experiment on several monkeys, avoiding shock by not removing the lobes, but simply severing their connection with the rest of the brain; the result was that there was no dulness or apathy, even temporarily, but after recovering from anaesthesia the animals appeared as bright and intelligent as before the operation. 1 There is, therefore, no experimental ground for associating these lobes with intellectual processes. Moreover, the frontal region is, relatively, very considerably developed in the anthropoid apes, in whom the intellectual processes are not usually regarded as highly developed. Nor is the frontal lobe relatively more developed in the adult than in the foetus. And it may be added that in woman, in whom it is if anything more developed than in man, the relations 1 A. Schafer, "On the Functions of the Pre-frontal Lobes," a paper read at the London International Congress of Experimental Psychology, Google THE HEAD. IO9 of the frontal region (as Cunningham's results show) more nearly approach the anthropoid form than man's; although in one important point, as Cunning- ham points out, men in the relations of this region approach the apes more nearly than women: the area of the frontal lobe covered by the parietal bone is relatively less in men than in women. It must be added that while at present it cannot be definitely asserted that the frontal parts of the brain are specially connected with the higher mental processes, neither can it be definitely denied. A consideration which makes it very improbable is the high per- centage of the frontal lobes to the brain as a whole, furnished by idiots and imbeciles; in Clap- ham's figures it is scarcely second to that given by even the most intellectual forms of insanity. The question remains open, though it seems most reason- able to suppose that the whole of the brain is con- cerned in mental operations, and certainly by no means least the sensori-motor regions of the middle of the brain, of which we have the most detailed experimental knowledge.
These centres are concentrated in the parietal portions of the cerebrum, and there seems now to be no doubt that they predominate in men. This result has been obtained by Broca (though Broca's figures show only a slight preponderance of this region in men), Meynert, Rudinger, Crichton-Browne, Tigges, etc. There is some reason to suppose that the parietal region is very largely developed in persons of exceptional intellectual power; thus Rudinger, examining eighteen brains of distinguished men, found that in all of them the parietal lobes were largely developed in the frontal direction. There is a connection between the development of the parietal lobes and the cephalic index; a brain largely developed in the parietal region would tend to be brachycephalic. We have seen that there is some reason to suppose that among the civilised Google 110 MAN AND WOMAN.
white races women are slightly less brachycephalic than men. In apes the parietal region is small owing to the incursion both of the frontal and occipital lobes. 1 It is somewhat doubtful whether the occipital lobe is larger in women than in men; Broca's figures show it to be on an average relatively the same size, in earlier adult age somewhat larger, in old age some- what smaller; Crichton-Browne found it larger in women; many authorities speak uncertainly, or are inclined to find it larger in men. Cunningham finds it larger in women. It may be added that the general tendency of the occipital lobe in the mammalian series is to decrease; it is relatively smaller in the anthropoids than in the more primitive apes, and is still smaller in Man; on the other hand, it tends to become more convoluted, so that we cannot regard it as in process of atrophy; Gambetta's brain, which was small, was a marvellous example of occi- pital convolution.
Sexual distinctions in the important matter of the vascular supply of the brain have as yet received little attention. Sir James Crichton-Browne and Dr. Sidney Martin have, however, recently made some interesting observations. They find that the combined diameter of the internal carotid and vertebral arteries which supply the brain, taken together, are relatively to. the brain-mass rather larger in women than in men. So that women's brains receive a proportionately larger blood-supply than men's, and do not suffer as they otherwise would from the comparative poverty which, as we shall see later, characterises their blood. The same investigators have found that the internal carotid is slightly larger in men, the vertebral slightly larger in women. 2 These results were founded on a small 1 •* It would be an interesting field for speculation," Cunningham remarks, "to consider whether this parietal increase in the human brain has anything to do with the acquisition of the educated move- ments of the limbs — more especially of the upper limbs — and that wonderful harmony of action which exists between the brain and the hands, and which has played so important a part in the evolution of the species." — "Contribution to the Surface Anatomy," etc., p. 59.
2 Sir J. Crichton-Browne, " Sex in Education," Brit, Med. Journal t Google THE HEAD. Ill number of subjects, but they are entirely in harmony with the results already set forth; for while the internal carotid chiefly supplies the parietal regions which we have found to be large in men, the vertebral chiefly supplies, not only the doubtfully large occipital, but various other basal ganglia which are large in women.
If we turn from the consideration of the sexual differences in the divisions of the cerebrum to the larger and plainer divisions of the brain-mass into cerebrum, cerebellum, and the medulla and axial part of the brain, the points of sexual difference are somewhat clearer. The most reliable evidence points on the whole to the cerebellum being, relatively, distinctly larger in women than in men, as stated long ago by Gall and Cuvier Broca's figures show that to a slight extent the medulla and cerebellum, but especially the latter, are relatively larger in women. Dr. Philippe Rey, who has worked up Broca's figures with much elaboration, finds that with scarcely an exception all the centres below the cerebrum are relatively larger in women. 1 Boyd's figures show that the cerebellum is to the whole cerebrum in males between the ages of 7 and 14 as 103 to 1000, and between the ages of 30 and 40 as 106 to 1000; in females at the earlier period it is as 105 to 1000, at the later period as 108 to 1000; the medulla is somewhat larger in males at the earlier age, and larger in females at the later age. Marshall, in an important paper 2 on the weight of the brain and its parts, found that the ratio of the cerebellum to the cerebrum (from Boyd's figures) is in adult males as 1 to 8.17, in adult females as 1 to 8; and he further worked out from Boyd's figures the ratio 2 J. Marshall, " On the Relation between the Weight of the Brain and its parts, and the Stature and Mass of the Body in Man" (founded partly on facts recorded by Boyd in Philosophical Trans., 1861, partly from Boyd's original MSS., and partly from fuller tables prepared by Boyd at Marshall's request), Journal of Anat. and Phys. % July 1892.
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of the parts of the brain to the whole in decimal parts of an ounce to every inch of height: — Men.
No. of Gases.
Age.
Entire Encephalon.
Cerebrum.
Cere- bellum.
Pons and Medulla.
Women.
85 This shows that while men possess relatively to height more cerebrum than women, in the distribu- tion of the lower centres the sexes are equal. Reid, Peacock, Weisbach, Meynert, and Bischoff have agreed that there is little sexual difference in regard to the relative proportions of the cerebellum. It must be added that, in accordance with what has been already said in regard to the brain generally, this sexual cerebellar equality relatively to height really means cerebellar predominance in women. Some of the basal ganglia of the brain, according to Tigges and others, are absolutely as well as relatively larger in women. Putting together numerous faces, it seems clear that the mantle is that part of the brain which is most liable to vary. The cerebellum, the various basal ganglia, and the spinal cord seem to be more constant than the cerebrum; they do not waste to the same extent with age or with insanity.
It is worth noting that the cerebellum in women is relatively larger than the cerebrum. But the significance of this fact is at present by no means obvious. There is less to be positively affirmed to-day about the functions of the cerebellum than there was fifty years ago. It has no connection, as was once supposed, with the sexual instinct. Its destruction does not produce either paralysis or loss of intelligence. The only definite function which, so far as is yet known, it seems to possess, is the function Google THE HEAD. II3 of, to some extent, co-ordinating muscular movement. Ferrier has suggested that visceral or organic sensory impressions are represented in the cerebellum. It may be added that the cerebellum is a characteristic- ally adult organ; in the new-born child it may only form about one-thirteenth or less of the brain-mass; in the adult it forms about one-seventh.
It can scarcely be said that the study of the brain from our present point of view leads to the revelation of any important sexual distinctions. In the future, when the facts are more precisely ascertained, and their significance more obvious, than they are now, it may be different At present it is necessary to insist upon the fact that the importance of the brain has been greatly exa ggera ted. Its i mportance, unquestion- ably, is great, but it is an importance that is strictly related toThe brain's very i ntimate connection ^w ith the body generally. We have been apt to regard it as the despotic ruler of the body, whereas, so far as it is a ruler at all, it is a strictly democratic ruler. The brain elements, for the most part, are but sensori-motor delegates brought together for the sake of executive convenience. We must not, there- fore, be surprised if we can often better study these cerebral representatives of the organism by investi- gating the organism itself.
While, however, the brain is at present an unpro- fitable region for the study of sexual difference, it is, as we have seen, an extremely instructive region for the study of sexual equality. Men possess no rel ative superior ity of brain-mass; tfie 'superiority in brain-mass, so far as it exists, is on woma n's side; this, however, implies no int ellectua l sup eriori ty, rjut is merely a characteristic of s hort peo ple and children. Nor is there any well-marked sexual arrangement^* the nervous elements which implies relative inferiority on one side or the other. The parietal predominance of man is possibly such a character, but, as we have seen, this predominance is so inconspicuous that it 8 Google 114 MAN AND WOMAN.
has been possible in the past to attribute it to woman. From the present standpoint of brain-anatomy and brain-physiology, there is no ground for attributing any superiority to o ne se x over ag^ther. Broca, the greatest *of~l r rench antriropologists/wriose keen and luminous intelligence has brought so much light to the study of man, believed many years ago (in 1861) that women are, naturally and by cerebral organisa- tion, slightly less intelligent than men. This opinion has been very widely quoted; it is not so well known that with riper knowledge Broca 's opinion change^, and he became inclined to thirHTthat Ttrwas merely a matter of education — of muscular, it must be under- stood, and not merely mental, education, — and he thought that if left to their spontaneous impulses men and women would tend to resemble each other, as happens in the savage condition. 1 It must be clearly recognised that in the present state of our knowledge there is no recognisable scientific warrant for the introduction of these considerations as factors in the settlement of the questions of social and practical life.
' Discussion at the Paris Anthropological Society, Bull, Soc, d'Anth.y 3rd July 1879.
Google "5 CHAPTER VI.
THE SENSES.
TOUCH — LOMBROSO'S RESULTS, SHOWING GREATER OBTUSE- NESS OF WOMEN — JASTROW'S, SHOWING GREATER OBTUSENESS OF MEN — UNRELIABILITY OF TESTS ADOPTED — EDUCABILITY OF THE TACTILE SENSE.
SENSIBILITY TO PAIN — LOMBROSO'S AND JASTROW'S RESULTS AGAIN OPPOSED — GENERAL ARGUMENTS BROUGHT FORWARD — DISVULNERABILITY MARKED IN SAVAGES, CHILDREN, AND PERHAPS IN WOMEN — WOMEN'S LESSER SENSIBILITY TO PAIN NOT DEFINITELY PROVED.
SMELL — EXPERIMENTS OF NICHOLS AND BAILEY AND OF OTTOLENGHI — MEN POSSESS KEENER SENSE OF SMELL THAN WOMEN.
TASTE — SUPPOSED TO BE LESS KEEN IN WOMEN — BUT MORE KEEN ACCORDING TO INVESTIGATIONS OF NICHOLS AND BAILEY — THIS RESULT SUPPORTED BY OTTOLENGHl'S EXPERIMENTS.
HEARING — EXPERIMENTS ON KEENNESS OF HEARING DURING HEALTH FEW AND INCONCLUSIVE — RANGE OF AUDIBLE SENSATION PROBABLY GREATER IN MEN.
SIGHT — BLINDNESS COMMONER IN MEN — MINOR EYE- DEFECTS COMMONER IN WOMEN — NO MARKED SEXUAL DIFFERENCE IN KEENNESS OF HEALTHY VISION — COLOUR - PERCEPTION AND COLOUR - BLINDNESS — IN RANGE AND KEENNESS OF COLOUR-PERCEPTION MEN SOMEWHAT SUPERIOR TO WOMEN — COLOUR-BLINDNESS VERY RARE IN WOMEN — ALSO RARE AMONG SAVAGES — ITS ORIGIN STILL UNEXPLAINED.
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COLOURED HEARING — THIS AND ALLIED PHENOMENA MORE COMMON IN WOMEN AND IN CHILDREN THAN IN MEN. WHY WOMEN ARE POPULARLY SUPPOSED TO POSSESS KEENER SENSIBILITY — THE CONFUSION BETWEEN SENSIBILITY AND AFFECTABILITY.
TOUCH.
The observations bearing on this important point are unfortunately few and contradictory. Professor Lombroso, with the assistance of Drs. Roncoroni and Mura, 1 examined delicacy of touch in the hands of ioo women, whose personal history was free from criminality or insanity, and also examined a large number of criminal women. He divided the normal women into three groups, according to the number of physical abnormalities observed in them: the first group (54 in number) having at most only one degenerative character; the second (38 in number) having two or three degenerative characters; the third (8 in number) having numerous degenerative characters. He then divided each group according as they showed delicate tactile sense (1 to 1.5 mm.), medium tactile sense (1.5 to 3 mm.), obtuse tactile sense (3 mm. and upwards). The average of the first group was — right side, 2.39; left, 2.47. Of the second group — right side, 2.82; left, 2.85. Of the third — right, 2.92; left 3.28. The largest proportion of examples of delicate tactile sense, and the smallest number of obtuse, were in the first group; the smallest proportion of delicate, and the largest of obtuse tactile sense, in the third group; the second came midway. This shows on the whole decided obtuseness. In twelve young girls, however, between the ages of six and fifteen, Lombroso found very delicate tactile sense, the average being on the right 1.56, on the left 1.57.
1 "Tatto e Tipo Degenerativo in Donne Normali, Criminali e Alienate," Archivio di Psichiatria, 1891, Fasc. I -I I.
Google THE SENSES. 117 He also found that in educated women the obtusity is less (2) than in women of the people (2.6). Lombroso states that in adult men the average is 1.7, without, however, explaining how this average is obtained. The average of 38 insane women and 43 insane men, examined by Drs. Gurrieri and Roncoroni, showed a greater obtusity than normal, more marked in the men; thus the average for the women was on the right hand, 2.87; on the left, 3.12; on the tongue, 2.07; while the corresponding figures for the men were 3.33, 3.59, and 2.28. It was also found that tactile sensibility in criminal women was more obtuse than in ordinary women, and even more obtuse than in criminal men, as determined by Rossi. 1 De Filippi and Turin, at Lombroso's request, examined general sensibility in about 140 persons at Turin with the electric algometer. They found it slightly greater in men of the lower class than in women of the same class, and there was a like result in compar- ing young persons. Similar results were obtained when Du Bois-Reymond's induction machine was used.
It will be seen that while the results brought for- ward by Lombroso are interesting and suggestive, they are not altogether complete or conclusive from the point of view of sexual difference, which was not the chief point aimed at We are not told to what social class the 100 women belonged, though we are left to infer that it was a decidedly low social class, and no examination of a corresponding series of men is brought before us. While the general result of Professor Lombroso's evidence is to show that tactile sensibility in normal women is obtuse, it must 1 Gurrieri has also published a detailed study of ordinary sensibility and sensibility to pain in girls, women, and prostitutes (showing the great sensory obtuseness of prostitutes), but without comparison with men. (R. Gurrieri, "Sensibilita e Anomalie Fisiche e Psichiche nella Donna Normale e nella Prostitute," Archvuio di Psichiatria, Fasc.
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also be noted that this does not hold good for the insane examined, nor for young girls.
Professor Jastrow 1 has brought forward a small series of observations on male and female students, which though also not conclusive, have the advantage of being perfectly comparable; the tests were selected in order to yield quickly a few typical results. The aesthesiometer used was one designed by Professor Jastrow himself: on the tip of fore-finger the average for 32 men was 1.71, for 22 women, 1.52; on the back of hand the average for 30 men was 17.5, for 22 women, 15.0. The sensitiveness of the palm was tested by determining the minimum height from which the fall of a bit of cardboard (weighing.9 mgr., and cut in a rectangle of I by 2 mm. from a sheet of millimetre paper pasted on cardboard) could be per- ceived; this distance was 58.2 in 27 men, but only 21.9 in 22 women. An attempt to test the pressure sense, as exhibited in the finger resting on the beam of a modified post-office balance, showed men and women about equal, J or ^ of the initial weight in the scale-pan being correctly appreciated.