XXIII. On the brain of the negro, compared with that of the European and the orang-outang

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Abstract
I take the liberty of presenting to the Royal Society a paper on a subject which appears to me to be of great importance in the natural history, anatomy, and physiology of Man; interesting also in a political and legislative point of view. Celebrated naturalists, Camper, Soemmerring, and Cuvier, look upon the Negroes as a race inferior to the European in organization and intellectual powers, having much resemblance with the Monkey. Naturalists of less authority have exaggerated this opinion. Were it proved to be correct, the negro would occupy a different situation in society from that which has so lately been given him by the noble British Government. I propose in this treatise to examine more minutely the most important part of this doctrine, namely, the structure of the brain, the noblest part of the human body, in reference to its functions. A comparison between the brain of the Negro and that of the European and the Orang-Outang, hitherto much neglected, appeared to me most worthy of attention. I shall first of all try to answer the following two questions.

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