I ]Sr T K D U C T I JS^ . * 



I commenced the study of Ethnology in 1830 ; in which year, having 

 occasion to deliver an introductory lecture on Anatomy, it occurred to 

 me to illustrate the difference in the form of the skull as seen in the five 

 great races of men. After the lapse of but twenty years, the fact seems 

 strange even to myself, that when I sought the materials for my proposed 

 lecture, I found to my surprise that they could be neither bought nor 

 borrowed. Caucasian and Negro crania were readily procured, and two 

 or three Indian skulls were placed at my disposal; but for the Mongolian 

 and Malay I inquired in vain. I resolved, therefore, to supply this re- 

 markable deficiency in an important branch of science; and much time? 

 toil, and expense have been rewarded by the acquisition of 867t human 

 skulls and 601 of the inferior animals. Yet I need hardly add, that had 

 it not been for the exertions of my friends in every quarter of the globe 

 my object would have remained unaccomplished. The following pages 

 afford emphatic evidence on this point; and it gives me great pleasure 

 thus to record the kindness of those persons who have aided me in an 

 enterprise that, for obvious reasons, has been attended by many diffi- 

 culties. 



The primary motive in making the following Collection, has been to 

 compare the characters of the cranium in the different races of men, and 

 these again with the skulls of the inferior animals ; not only in reference 

 to exterior form, but also to internal capacity as indicative of the size of 

 the brain. 



Beside these strictly Ethnographic objects, some others of a different^ 

 and subordinate kind have been had in view; such as pathological condi- 

 tions of the skull from diseases and from wounds ; remarkable develop- 

 ments illustrative of the principles of Phrenology, and preternatural 

 growths of every description. 



The Indian crania contained in this series have received my especial 

 attention, both in respect to their number and authenticity, for they have 

 been collected with great care by the gentlemen whose names are asso- 

 ciated with them. In every instance where a doubt is entertained as to 

 the tribe or nation to which the skull belonged, it is expressed by a mark 

 of interrogation; and where no clue exists for such information, the defi- 

 ciency is noted accordingly. I have sometimes had the skulls of both 



* Reprinted from the Catalogue of Skulls of Man and the Inferior Animals, in the 

 Collection of Samuel George Morton, M. D., Philada , 1849. 

 t Since increased to 1035. 



