810 Dv Prichard on the Relations of Ethnology 



ethnology likewise obtains resources for pursuing the inves- 

 tigation of the history of nations and of mankind from many 

 other quarters. It derives information from the w^orks of 

 ancient historians, and still more extensively from the his- 

 tory of languages and their affiliations. The history of lan- 

 guages, indeed, greatly extended as it has been in late times, 

 has furnished unexpected resources to ethnology, vi^hich could 

 hardly have advanced a few steps without such aid. As geo- 

 logy would have been a barren and uninteresting study, and 

 uncertain in most of its results, without the aids which the 

 study of organic remains has unexpectedly brought, serving 

 often to identify geological formations, and to connect parti- 

 cular series of rocks with periods in the world's history ; so 

 the discoveries of Glossology have enabled us to trace alli- 

 ances between nations scattered over distant regions of the 

 earth, of whose relation to each other we never should have 

 had an idea without such evidence. 



I shall now endeavour to point out, in a brief and cursory 

 manner, what assistance each department of knowledge has 

 contributed to the cultivation of ethnology. But here I must 

 crave the indulgence of those who are conversant with the 

 history and progress of this science, since I shall not be able 

 to accomplish the task proposed without saying much that 

 must to such persons be already well known and familiar. 



I. The branches of natural history and science which fur- 

 nish aids in the promotion of ethnology, are anatomy, phy- 

 siology, zoology, and physical geography. 



The first attempt that deserves notice to distinguish races 

 of men was made by Camper, an anatomist. The distinction 

 adopted by Camper is well known. It is founded on the shape 

 of the skull. It is the facial angle, or the measurement of 

 the angle included between two lines, one of which is drawn 

 from the passage of the ear to the basis of the nose ; and the 

 other a line slanting off from the forehead to the mouth, or 

 rather to the most advanced point of the upper jawbone. 

 This angle was thought to afford a measure of the capacity 

 of the anterior part of the skull, and of the size of the corre- 

 sponding portion of the brain. Camper, who had within his 

 reach very few skulls for examination, thought that he found 

 this angle of different extent in different classes of human 



