PHYSIOLOGICAL RESEARCHES. 85 



in explanation of the general uniformity of structure of the American languages, 

 that among races osteologically allied, and possessing physical characters and in- 

 stincts in common, it is probable that their primitive languages would more or less 

 resemble each other; and that all languages which, in their infant state, come 

 together, would necessarily become fused into one heterogeneous mass, after a period 

 of more than five thousand years, for which, he considers, there is every reason to 

 believe that this continent has been inhabited. 



Dr. Nott presents his conclusions respecting the aboriginal races of America in 

 the form of eight propositions, viz: — 



"1. That the continent of America was unknown, not only to the ancient 

 Egyptians and Chinese, but to the more modern Greeks and Romans. 



2. That at the time of its discovery, this continent was populated by millions of 

 people resembling each other, possessing peculiar moral and physical characteristics, 

 and in utter contrast with any people of the Old "World. 



3. That the races were found surrounded everywhere by animals and plants 

 specifically different from those of the Old World, and created, as it is conceded, in 

 America. 



4. That these races were found speaking several hundred languages, which, 

 although often resembling each other in grammatical structure, differed, in general, 

 entirely, in their vocabularies, and were all radically distinct from the languages 

 of the Old World. 



5. That their monuments, as seen in their architecture, sculpture, earth-works, 

 shell-banks, &c, from their extent, dissemination, and incalculable numbers, fur- 

 nish evidence of very high antiquity. 



6. That the state of decomposition in which the skeletons of the mounds are 

 found, and, above all, the peculiar anatomical structure of the few remaining 

 crania, prove these mound-builders to have been both ancient and indigenous to 

 the soil; because American crania, antique as well as modern, are unlike those of 

 any other race of ancient or recent times. 



7. That the aborigines of America possessed no alphabet, or truly phonetic 

 system of writing — that they possessed none of the domestic animals, nor many of 

 the oldest arts of the eastern hemisphere ; whilst their agricultural plants were 

 indigenous. 



8. That their system of arithmetic was unique — that their astronomical know- 

 ledge, in the main, was indubitably of cis-atlantic origin ; while their calendar was 

 unlike that of any people, ancient or modem, of the other hemisphere." 



"Whatever exception," he adds, "may be taken to any of these propositions 

 separately, it must be conceded that, when viewed together, they form a mass of 

 cumulative testimony, carrying the aborigines of America back to the remotest 

 period of man's existence on earth." 



The extracts from Morton's inedited MSS., and Dr. Usher's chapter entitled 

 "Geology and Paleontology, in connection with Human Origins," contain a sum- 

 mary of accounts, claiming to be authentic, of discoveries of human bones in a 

 fossilized state. 



Omitting the references to those of foreign lands, we find enumerated a human 



