344 Morton’s Crania Americana. 
tremely vague. The line adopted runs from the Ganges ina 
northwestern direction to the Caspian Sea, and thence to the 
River Obi, in Russia. ‘ At a comparatively recent period, how- 
ever, several Mongolian nations have established themselves in 
Kurope ; as the Samoyedes, Laplanders, &c.” The Ethiopian 
line is drawn north of the Senegal River, obliquely east and 
south to the southern frontier of Abyssinia, and thence to Cape 
Guardafui, thus embracing thé Atlas Mountains. “ Of the latter, 
little is known ; but many negro nations inhabit to the north of 
them, at the same time that the Arab tribes have penetrated far 
beyond them to the south, and in some places have formed a 
mixed race with the natives.” - 
Dr. Morton gives a brief but clear tl st extending to his 
9st page, of the leading characteristics of each of these families, 
accompanying his text by references to the authorities from which 
the information is drawn. The labor and accuracy of the true 
philosopher are” here conspicuous. After perusing these de- 
tails, however, we are strongly impressed with the conviction 
that this branch of science is still only in its infancy. The 
scriptions of the mental qualities which distinguish the different 
families of mankind, given even by the best travellers, are vague 
and entirely popular. There is scarcely an instance of the 
specification of well defined mental faculties, present or absent 
the races, or possessed in peculiar combinations ; nothing, in 
short, which indicates that the travellers possessed a mental phi- ~ 
losophy under the different heads of which they could classify 
and particularize the characteristic qualities of mind which they 
observed, as the botanists describe and classify plants, or the ge- 
ologists minerals. The anatomical characters of the races, also, 
are still confined to a few particulars, and many even of these 
have been drawn from the inspection of a very limited number 
of specimens. The subject, however, possesses so*much inhe- 
rent interest and importance, that we may expect rapid advances 
to be made in its future development. 
The unity of the human species’ is assumed by Dr. Mor- 
ton. Itis known that the black race possess an apparatus in 
the skin, which is wanting in that of the white race. Flou- 
rens states that there “are, in the skin of the white race, three 
distinct laminee or membranes—the derm, and two epiderms ; 
endsiwithe skin of the black race, there is, besides the derm 
