206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



G. brachycephal* ( Northern Americans. -[ Aztecs in Mexico ? 



orthognathy. 



Southern Americans. < Ckincas in Peru? 



The latest and best elaborated views of Prof. Retzius upon this subject are 

 contained in a valuable essay, entitled A Glance at the present state of Ethnolo- 

 gy, with reference to the Form of the Skull.* This paper was read at the seventh 

 meeting of the Scandinavian Association of Naturalists, held at Christiania 

 in 1856. In it, the author thus criticises the theory of American unity, so 

 long and so persistently supported by Dr. Morton : 



"No European philosopher has," says Prof. Retzius, " since the time of 

 Blumenbach, devoted such fertile labor to the subject of ethnological crani- 

 ology as Dr. Morton, of Philadelphia, in his ' Crania Americana;' the results 

 of which are, nevertheless, but little satisfactory. Morton, himself, who has 

 brought forward so many facts of high value, has, like the distinguished 

 linguist who with such indefatigable labor studied the American tongues, 

 come mainly to the conclusion that both the race and the language are one. 

 I am rather perplexed as to this result, for I must confess that, from the facts 

 brought forward by Morton, and the numerous skulls with which he has so 

 kindly enricked tke collections in Stockholm, I have arrived at a wholly dif- 

 ferent inference. I can explain this only by supposing that this distinguished 

 man has allowed his extensive philology and great learning to affect his 

 vision as a naturalist. If the form of the skull is to have any weight in the 

 question of the races of man, there is scarcely any part of the world where 

 such contrasts are to be found between dolichocephali and brachycephali as in 

 America, and as such they present themselves to the eye of the naturalist in 

 Morton's ' Crania Americana.' I may just refer, for proof of this, to plate 2, 

 ' Peruvian child from Atacama ;' plate 32, ' Lenni Lenape ;' plate 38, ' Pawnee ;' 

 plate 40, ' Cotonay, Blackfoot ;' plate 64, ' Carib of Venezuela ;' plate 65, ' Ca- 

 rib of St. Vincent ' all of the most marked dolichocephalic forms ; and, on the 

 other hand, to plates 30 and 31, 'Natches,' with the great majority of the 

 figures of skulls from Chili, Peru, Mexico and Oregon, with many others of 

 equally well marked brachycephalic form. Much as these plates bear the 

 same testimony, I should scarcely have ventured on such a remark, did not a 

 very rick series in our own collections, as well as several valuable drawings 

 by Blumenbach, Sandifort, Van der Hoeven, &c, support my opinion. 



"From what I can infer from the American skulls I have seen, whether in 

 nature or in casts or plates, I have come to the conclusion that the dolicho- 

 cephalic is the predominant form in the Carribbee Islands, and in the eastern 

 region of the great American continent, from its most northern limit down 

 to Paraguay and Uraguay; and the brachycephalic in the Kurile Islands and 

 on the continent, from Behring's Strait, in Russian America, Oregon, Mexico, 

 Ecuador in Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentina, Patagonia, and Terra del Fuego. 



"Morton has also drawings of four Esquimau skulls, from the most north- 

 ern parts of America, and from the island of Disco, off the coast of Greenland ; 

 all of the characteristic form. In the text he says that they are always 

 characteristic, and that they are most decidedly distinguished from the skulls 

 of tke American Indians ; but adds at the same time, singularly enough, that 

 these Esquimaux are the only Americans presenting the Asiatic characters. 

 It is evident that this distinguished man has been guided by his already es- 



* Blick auf den gegenwartigen Standpunkt der Ethnologie in Bezug auf die Gestalt des Knoch- 

 ernon Schadelgerustes. Von Andreas Retzius, Berlin, 1857. See also J. Mailer's Archiv. fur 

 Anatomie und Physiologie, 1858; and for an Euglish translation see British and Foreign Medico- 

 Chirurgical Review for April and July, 1860. This translation was executed by Dr. W. D. Moore, 

 who informs us that in the last letter which he received from Prof. Retzius, the latter says : "You give 

 me also hope to see my ethnological views in English; I should be very thankful for that, as you 

 see that it contains some views of, as I think, great importance ; as in the question of the unity of 

 the American races, which I have clearly shown false." This letter appears to have been written 

 not long before the death of this eminent Swedish craniographer. 



[May, 



