[2 ads], [vi], [1], [1 blank], 84 pp. Errata sheet laid in. Six lithograph plates, and numerous tables in text, most full-page, a few multi-page. (Folio) 31.5x24 cm (12¼x9½") early paper-backed boards. First edition in book form and first edition in German.
This landmark work first appeared in English in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in the preceding year. Although Friedrich Tiedemann (1781-1861) is best remembered for his classical work with Leopold Gmelin on the digestive system (See Garrison-Morton 988), as well as his important contribution to the understanding of trichinosis (See Garrison-Morton 5336.4), he also did important work in comparative neuroanatomy. “In 1836 he published, in English, what may be considered one of the earliest basic works of physical anthropology, On the Brain of the Negro Compared With That of the European and the Orang-Outang. In this surprisingly modern study, Tiedemann showed that, in contrast to the large difference between the forebrains of apes and men, no substantial differences could be found between the brains of the races of men; although the majority of Negro skulls and cranial cavities that he studied were smaller than those of European specimens, they had, by his measurement, contained brains as large and as heavy. He further stated his finding that there was no area of intellectual activity in which Negroes could not perform as well as European whites, and concluded that there was no natural formation or disposition of the brain in Negroes that would substantiate the notion of their predestined subservient state.”--DSB, XIII, pp. 402-404. Cushing T113. See Ruch, Bibliographia Primatologica, 1875, listing only the London, 1836 first edition (in English). Not in the Courville Collection. Not in Waller, nor any of the other collection catalogues usually consulted. With the later ownership stamp of F. Mayor D. Ch. on the first page of advertisements.