NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 



205 



Bory de St. Vincent divided the Americans into four species, the Nep- 

 tunian, Columbian, American and Patagonian. Of the Columbians he says: 

 "Leur tete est bien conformee, il en resulte une figure agreablement ovale, 

 ou le front est cependant singuliereinent aplati ;" and of the Americans: 

 " Les hommes ont, a peu d'exception pres, la tete ronde, d'un volume dispro- 

 portionne, enfonc^e dans les epaules, lourde, aplatie sur le vertex," &c* 



In 1839, M. D'Orbigny, speaking of the native races of South America, de- 

 clared that, after examining a large number of crania, he was convinced that 

 they differed from each other not only according to race and nation, but also 

 individually; and that it would be as difficult to prove that the form of the 

 head is one among the Americans, as to demonstrate rigorously the perma- 

 nent cranial characters, which would be sufficient to distinguish them from 

 other nations. f 



The late Prof. Retzius communicated to the meeting of the Scandinavian 

 Association of Naturalists, held at Stockholm, in 1842, a valuable paper on 

 the Form of the Skulls of Northerns, in which he refers the Greenlanders and 

 some of the American races to the prognathic Dolichocephali, and others of 

 the American family to the prognathic Brachycephali.J Two years later he 

 read before the same Association, at a meeting held in Christiania, in July, 

 1844, another essay On the Form of the Skull in different Nations,^ in which he 

 devotes a special section to the American races, and classifies tbem in the 

 following manner, according to the length of the cranium : 



Greenlanders and Esquimaux, 



Kolusches, 



Cherokees, 



Chippeways, 



Iroquois, 



Hurons, 



Chickasaws, 



Cayugas, 



Ottigamies, 



Pottawotomies, 



Lenni Lenape", 



Blackfeet. 



G. dolichocephala; 

 prognatbaj. 



Northern Americans. 



G. brachycephalas 

 prognathse. 



("Botocudos, 



| Caribs, 



c, ., . I Guaranis, 



Southern Americans, j AymaraS) ' 



j Huanchas, 

 [ Patagonians. 



f Natches, 

 I Creeks, 



Seminoles, 

 I Euches, 

 [Klatskanai. 



C Northern Americans, 



[Southern Americans. 



"Charruas, 



Puelches, 



Araucanians, 

 [Modern Peruvians. 



* L'Homme (Homo). Essai Zoologique sur le Genre Humain ; 2d edit., Paris, 1827, t. 2, pp. 6, 21. 



t L'Homme Americain. t. i. pp. 118, 119, 120. 



j Om Formen af Nordboernes Cranier, af A. Retzius. (Aftryckt ur Forhandl, vid Naturfors- 

 karnes Mote i Stockholm, Sr 1S42.) Stockholm, 1S43, p. 4. See also'- Uber die Schadelformen der 

 Nordbewohner," in J. Muller's Archiv. for 1845. 



{(Om formen af hufvudets benstomme hos olika folkslag. Ved Prof. A. A. Retzius, M. D. (Af- 

 trykt fra ' Forhandlinger ved de Skandinariske Naturforskeres fjerde mode i Christiania fra 11 

 18 Juli, 1844.") Christiania, 1847, pp. 17, 18. See also the German translation, Ueber die Form 

 des Knochengerustes des Kopfes bei den verschiedenen Volkern, pp 280, 281. 



1866.] 



