PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES. 75 



materially improved by Blumenbach ; while to the methods of these naturalists 

 important additions have been suggested by Professor Owen. 



Very high expectations were formed that more trustworthy conclusions would 

 be derived from osteological comparisons than other methods of examination had 

 yielded; and an eager desire was manifested to obtain from this country the 

 means of tracing anatomically the affiliation of its people. 1 



Although the attention of scientific Americans was particularly called to this 

 department of inquiry by the philosophers of Europe, its prosecution was attended 

 with difficulties which only the most persevering zeal could overcome. Not only 

 were cabinets of foreign crania beyond the reach of our students, but skulls of our 

 aborigines, well authenticated with regard to the period and the tribe or race to 

 which they belonged, were by no means easy to be obtained ; yet a response credit- 

 able at once to the enterprise and the ability of American scholars has not been 

 wanting. 



In September, 1837, Dr. John C. Warren, of Boston, read before the British 

 Association for the Advancement of Science a paper on crania found in western 

 mounds. After stating that these crania differed from those of the present Indians, 

 from the Caucasian or European, and from all existing nations so far as they are 

 known, but had an exact resemblance to the ancient Peruvian heads, he remarked 

 upon a degree of similarity shown by anatomy between the crania spoken of and 

 those of the modern Hindoos. From all the facts he had observed he drew the 

 following inferences : 



" 1st. The race whose remains were discovered in the mounds were different 

 from the existing North American Indians. 2d. The ancient race of the mounds 

 is identical with the ancient Peruvians." To these conclusions he thought others 

 might be added tending to support existing opinions, but which are hypothetical : — 

 " 1st. That the ancient North American and the Peruvian natives were derived 

 from the southern part of Asia. 2d. That America was peopled from at least two 



Governor Pownal appears to have possessed a very suggestive mind, and one unusually quick and 

 prospective in its perceptions. His political anticipations are among the most striking instances of 

 foresight to be found on record. Cardinal Wiseman's reference is to a passage in Knox's " New Col- 

 lection of Voyages," printed in 1766. In 1782, Governor Pownal published a treatise on the study of 

 antiquities as the commentary to historical learning ; with an appendix on the elements of speech, and 

 the origin of written language. In 1781, appeared his "Hydraulic and Nautical Observations on the 

 Currents in the Atlantic," in some measure anticipating the idea since realized by modern research. 

 In 1795, he printed what he called "An Antiquarian Romance; endeavoring to mark a line by which 

 the most ancient people, and the processions of the earliest inhabitant of Europe may be investi- 

 gated," &c. 



It is to be regretted that only a portion of his philosophical and ethnological treatises (which were 

 numerous) are known to be in this country. 



1 " Let us hope," said Humboldt, " that the learned men who now honor the United States will 

 hasten to convey the skeletons of the tumuli, and those of the caverns, to Europe, that they may be 

 compared together, and with the present inhabitants of native race, as well as with the individuals of 

 Malay, Mongol, and Caucasian race, found in the great collections of MM. Cuvier, Soemmering, and 

 Blumenbach." — Personal Narrative, VI, 319. 



