PHYSICAL ETHNOLOGY. 249 



Turning from this review of the meagre data hitlicrto recovered from tlie 

 ancient sepulchral mounds, let us next consider tlie two great civilized nations 

 of the New World, the Peruvians and Mexicans. Their civilization had an 

 independent origin and growth. The scenes of its development were distinct; 

 and each exhibited special characteristics of intellectual progress. Nevertheless, 

 they had so much in common, that the determination of tlie physical type 

 peculiar to eacli will be best secured by ascertaining what is common to both. 



When Dr. Morton first undertook the investigation of the cranial character- 

 istics of the American races, he admitted the force of the evidence presented 

 to him in the examination of a number of ancient Peruvian skulls, and has 

 recorded in his Crania Americana a distinct recognition of fclie traces of well- 

 defined brachyceplialic and dolichocephalic races among the ancient Peruvians.* 

 But the seductive charms of his comprehensive theory of an American ethnic 

 unity ultimately prevailed over the earlier opinion, which, even in the Crania 

 Americana, was stated as the legitimate deduction from the evidence in ques- 

 tion, without being incorporated into the author's concluding propositions; and 

 he accordingly states his conviction that all the extremest varieties of the Peru- 

 vian head were naturally of the same rounded shape, and owe their diversities 

 of form to artificial deformation. In this, as in others of the deductions drawn 

 by Dr. Morton from the carefully accumulated data which his well-directed 

 industry contributed to the science, it is obvious that his mind dwelt too exclu- 

 sively on one or two of the leading characteristics of the more numerous varie- 

 ties of American crania; and, like others who have satisfied their minds in regard 

 to one central type, he evaded every variation from it, by assuming it as a mere 

 exceptional aberration. 



A revision of the evidence accumulated by Dr. Morton, along v/ith additional 

 illustrations derived from other sources, suggests conclusions in reference to 

 Peruvian cranial forms at variance with the idea of a universally prevalent 

 rounded, or brachycephalic Peruvian head. In pursuing my researches on this 

 subject, I have enjoyed the advantage of minutely studying and measuring aii 

 interesting collection of crania and mummied bodies, brought by John II. Blake, 

 esq., of Boston, from ancient Peruvian cemeteries on the shores of the Bay 

 of Chacota, in latitude 18° 30' S. In addition to those the following tables of 

 Peruvian cania include measurements made from others, in the collections of 

 Dr. J. M. Warren and the Natural History Society of Boston; in that of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 Washington. The materials upon which Dr. Morton based his final opinion 

 that the dolichocephalic crania found in ancient Peruvian graves deiivc their 

 form and proportions from artificial causes, and consequently that these have 

 no ethnical significance, are still accessible ; and the bearings of the additional 

 evidence since accumulated justify a reconsideration of the proofs. Since the 

 subject was taken up by him the effects, not only of designed, but also of unde- 

 signed artificial compression, and of posthumous distortion, on cranial forms, 

 have been minutely studied. The application of continuous pressure on the 

 skull during infancy can be carried so far as to obliterate nearly every trace of 

 its normal proportions. But it cannot substitute for them a symmetrical artifi- 

 cial conformatioHi. Even comparatively slight pressure is betrayed by a corre- 

 sponding amount of inequality in the opposite sides of the head; and when the 

 compression is such as would be required to convert a brachycephalic head, 

 averaging 6.3.in longitudinal diameter, by 5.3 in parietal diameter, into a dolicho- 

 cephalic head of 7.3 by 4.9 in diameter, the retention of anything like the 

 normal symmetry is impossible. The following table of measurements illus- 

 trates the proportions of the Peruvian brachycephalic skull : 



' Crania Americana, p. 98. 



