Morton's Crania Americana. 341 
Art. XX.—Crania Americana ; or a Comparative view of the 
Skulls of various Aboriginal Nations of North and South 
America ; to which is prefixed an Essay on the Varieties of the 
Human Species, illustrated by seventy-cight plates and a col- 
ored map ; by Samvet Georce Morron, M. D., Professor of 
Anatomy in the medical department of Pennsylvania College, 
at Philadelphia, &c. &c. Philadelphia: J. Dobson. London: 
Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Letter Press, pp. 296, folio, 1839. 
We hail this work as the most extensive and valuable contri- 
bution to the natural history of man, which has yet appeared on 
the American continent, and anticipate for it a cordial reception 
by scientific men not only in the United States, but in Europe. 
The subject is one of great interest, and Dr. Morton has treated 
it in a manner at once scientific and pleasing, while the beauty 
and accuracy of his lithographic plates are not surpassed by any 
of the modern illustrations of science. 
The principal. design of the work, says Dr. Morton, has been 
“to give accurate delineations of the crania of more than forty 
Indian nations, Peruvian, Brazilian and Mexican, together with 
a particularly extended series from North America, from the Pa- 
cific Ocean to the Atlantic, and from Florida to the region of the 
Polar tribes. Especial attention has also been given to the sin- 
gular distortions of the skull caused by mechanical contrivances 
in use among various nations, Peruvians, .Charibs, Natches, and 
the tribes inhabiting the Oregon Territory.’ His materials, in 
this department, are so ample, that he has been enabled to give a 
full exposition of the subject. He has also bestowed particular 
attention on the crania from the mounds of this country, which 
have heen compared with similar relics, derived both from ancient 
and modern tribes, “in, order to examine, by the evidence of 
Osteolegical facts, whether the American aborigines, of all epochs, 
have belonged to one race, or toa plurality of races.” 
The introductory Essay, ‘on the varieties of the human spe- 
Cies,”’ occupies ninety-five pages. It is learned, lucid, and like 
the whole work, classically written. The author notices the great 
diversities of opinion that have existed among naturalists regard- 
ing the grouping of mankind into races ; Linneus referred 
all the human family to five races ; Buffon proposed six great di- 
