304 Dr. Seoul er on the form of the 



letis, nigrescentibus, utrinque tribus ; maculisque flavescenti-albidis infra 

 et supra oculos. 



Paradoxurus leucopus. 

 Par. nigro-briinneus ; pedibus, cingulo lumborum lato, ventre, mem- 

 bris interne, caudseque apice, albis; cruribus, facieque nigris; hac 

 circa interque oculos cinerea. 



Art. XXXVIII. Remarks on the form of the Skull of the 

 North American Indiajis. By John Scoulkk, M.D. 



While the zeal of Naturalists has been so successfully occupied in 

 exploring the most remote regions of the earth, that scarcely a moss or 

 a zoophyte can escape the notice of the traveller, or remain long un- 

 described, w^e may be justly surprized that so few contributions have been 

 made to the natural history of our own species. This branch of natural 

 history has been more frequently the amusement of wild theory than the 

 subject of careful and scientific investigation. BufFon has the merit of 

 being among the first who directed the attention of Naturalists to the study 

 of anthropology, by cloathing it with the charms of his eloquence, and 

 since his time it has begun to occupy the curiosity of the Zoologist in the 

 manner it deserves. In the truly classic work of Blumenbach on the 

 varieties of the human race, we have a simple and elegant compendium of 

 the present state of our knowledge in this department of science, and a 

 model for similar investigations. He has judiciously refuted the fictions 

 which less philosophical writers had credited as favourable to some 

 theoretical opinions they wished to defend, and has directed our attention to 

 subjects more deserving of observation. In the history of the American race 

 especially, we shall find many stories of a fabulous nature to reject, while 

 circumstances sufficiently interesting will be brought under our notice. 



In no race of mankind do we find more anxiety displayed to impose 

 some artificial deformity on their bodies, than among the Aborigines of 

 the American continent and islands. We have seen, within the circuit of 

 a few hundred miles, almost every variety of artificial deformity that a 



