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PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



physical, and more especially the cranial, characteristics of the native 

 races of the New World are at once common and peculiar to them, it is strong-, 

 presumptive evidence that they are isolated or distinct from the rest of man- 

 kind in origin. If, on the contrary, it can be shown that the skulls of these 

 people really belong to different, well-marked types or forms, which, if not 

 identical with, are, at least, the homoiocephalic representatives of those of 

 the Eastern Hemisphere, it becomes very probable that there is for the Ameri- 

 can variety of man neither unity nor genetic isolation. The discussion of the 

 origin and affiliations of this widely spread race has an important bearing 

 upon the higher and more complex question of the unity of the entire human 

 family. As this discussion involves, among other facts, the consideration of 

 the osteological characters of the aboriginal American, it becomes very im- 

 portant to determine with exactitude the typical, cranial form or forms of this 

 race. 



The extraordinary doctrine of a uniform American type of skull originated, 

 as is well known, with the late Dr. Samuel George Morton. He was also the 

 most enthusiastic and persistent advocate of this scientific dogma. A variety 

 of circumstances combined to give unusual acceptance to his views. He be- 

 gan his craniographic researches two years after the completion of Blumen- 

 bach's Decades Craniorum, by accumulating what was then, as far as I can 

 learn, the largest and most diversified collection of human skulls in the world. 

 These he long and attentively studied, until he acquired the right to speak 

 authoritatively concerning them. No one was in possession of so many na- 

 tive American crania as he, and so little interest was manifested in human 

 craniography at that time, that but few if any persons ever examined his col- 

 lection with the object of testing the validity of his conclusions. Moreover, 

 prior to the publication of Crania Americana, Dr. Morton had already acquired 

 the double reputation of a naturalist and a physician, and for several years 

 before his death occupied the most prominent, official position in the Acade- 

 my of Natural Sciences. In view of these facts, it is not at all surprising 

 that his opinions, instead of being controverted, as they now are, found ready 

 adherents ; and that one of the most eminent of living naturalists should have 

 employed them, as well established facts, in his attempt "to show that the 

 boundaries, within which the different natural combinations of animals are 

 known to be circumscribed upon the surface of our earth, coincide with the 

 natural range of distinct types of man."* 



In 1856, while preparing for publication an article on the cranial charac- 

 teristics of the various races of menf I especially directed my attention to 

 those groups of crania in the Academy's collection which had not been de- 

 scribed by Dr. Morton. With regard to American and Egyptian skulls, which 

 he had so long and so carefully studied, I contented myself with reproducing 

 the conclusions which he had already published, my object being to exhibit 

 in general panoramic review the skull-forms of the human family. In the 

 concluding remarks of that article I observed that just as "the Kalmuck or 

 true Mongolian, the Tartar, Chinese, Japanese and Turkish types of skull are 

 all, to a certain extent, related, and yet are all readily distinguishable from 

 each other, and as each of these groups again presents several cranial varie- 

 ties ; so, among the barbarous aborigines of North America, notwithstanding 

 the general osteologic assimilation of their crania, important tribal distinc- 

 tions can be readily pointed out." I also remarked: " It is a general and 

 very well known fact first noticed by Buffon that the fauna and flora of the 

 Old World are not specifically identical with the fauna and flora of the New. 

 Their relationship is manifested in an interesting system of representation, 

 or as Schouw expresses it, of geographical repetition according to climate. 

 To a certain extent, human cranial forms appear also to fall within the limits 



* Sketch of the Natural Provinces of the Animal World and their relation to the different Types 

 of Man. By Louis Agassiz. See Types of Mankind, p. lviii. 

 f Indigenous llaces of the Earth, p. 203. 



[May, 



