of the Human Species. 315 



sufficient for establishing any conclusions of importance as to 

 the different forms of the human cranium, until Blumenbach 

 had made his admirable collection of skulls. The results of his 

 long continued study of this collection have been published by 

 himself at different times. 



" Blumenbach distinguished, in the first place, three princi- 

 pal varieties of form in the human skull, — the ovaljbrm, which 

 is that of Europeans ; the narrow arid compressed, which is that 

 of Negroes ; and the broad faced skull, with laterally projecting 

 cheek-bones, belonging to Kalmucs and Mongoles. It happen- 

 ed, as I think, unfortunately, that Blumenbach named these va- 

 rieties of the skull, not from their characteristic forms, but from 

 some nations, in whom they in a conspicuous manner occur, or 

 from the supposed primitive abode of such nations. Thus the 

 ^ broad faced form is termed by him Mongolian ; the compressed, 

 jEthiopic, meaning African; and the oval form, Caiccasian. 

 The inconvenience which has arisen from the terms thus used is 

 the hypothesis to which it has given rise, that these three varie- 

 ties of form are characteristic of three distinct races of mankind. 

 This is Jiot Blumenbach's opinion, but it appears to be that of 

 Cuvier, who, in his Regne Animal and other works, has adopt- 

 ed Blumenbach's terms and divisions. Relying on the diversity 

 of physical characters, which yet he does not consider sufficient- 

 ly marked to constitute differences of species, Cuvier proposes 

 to divide mankind into three distinct races. One of these races 

 had, according to his hypothesis, its original seat on Mount 

 Atlas, and its branches are spread over Africa. These are the 

 narrow-skulled, woolly-haired African nations. But there are 

 woolly-haired tribes of men, equally black with the Negroes of 

 Guinea, and resembling them in form and general appearance, 

 in other equatorial countries besides Africa. Such are the black 

 savages who inhabit the mountains behind Malacca, termed Sa- 

 mang ; the woolly-haired Papuas of New Guinea, and nearly all 

 the larger islands of the Indian Archipelago ; and the natives of 

 Mallicollo, and some other isles in the Pacific Ocean. These 

 must belong to the same race as the African Negroes, if races 

 are constituted on the principle of physical analogy ; and Cu- 

 vier accordingly resorts to the hypothesis, that some Negroes 

 from Africa lost their way — se sont Sgares — in the great South- 



