IH Comparative View of 



are black and deep set, the brow low, the cheek bones high, 

 the nose large and aquiline, the mouth large, and the lips 

 tumid and compressed. The skull is small, wide between the 

 parietal protuberances, prominent at the vertex, and flat on 

 the occiput. In their mental character the Americans are averse 

 to cultivation, and slow in acquiring knowledge ; restless, re- 

 vengeful, and fond of war, and wholly destitute of maritime 

 adventure." 



The families into which this race is subdivided, are two ; 

 Ibth, The American ; and 16M, The Toltecan. 



V. " The Ethiopian Race is characterized by a black com- 

 plexion, and black, woolly hair. The eyes are large and pro- 

 minent, the nose broad and flat, lips thick, and the mouth wide. 

 The head long and narrow, the forehead low, the cheek bones 

 prominent, the jaws projecting and the chin small. In dispo- 

 sition, the Negro is joyous, flexible, and indolent ; while the 

 many nations which compose this race present a singular diver- 

 sity of intellectual character, of which the far extreme is the 

 lowest grade of humanity. 



This race is divided into — 17M, The Negro; 18M, The 

 Caffrarian ; l^th, The Hottentot ; 20th, The Oceanic Negro ; 

 2\.st, The Australian ; and 22d, The Alforian families. The 

 latter family is most numerous in New Guiana, the Moluccas 

 and Magindano. 



Dr Morton gives a brief but clear description, extending to 

 his 91st page, of the leading characteristics of each of these 

 families, accompanying his text by references to the authorities 

 from which the information is drawn. The labour and accu- 

 racy of the true philosopher are here conspicuous. After per- 

 using these details, however, we are strongly impressed]with the 

 conviction that this branch of science is still only in its in- 

 fancy. The descriptions of the mental faculties which distin- 

 guish the difi'erent families of mankind, given even by the best 

 travellers, are vague and entirely popular. There is scarcely 

 an instance of the specification of well defined mental faculties, 

 present or absent in the races, or possessed in peculiar com- 

 binations ; nothing, in short, which indicates that the travellers 

 possessed a mental philosophy, under the diff*erent heads of 

 which they could classify and particularize the characteristic 

 qualities of mind which they observed, as the botanists describe 



