162 Memoir of Samuel George Morton. 
I have mentioned his collection of crania. His earliest publi- 
cation on ethnology was the splendid volume illustrated with 
geautiful lithographs, entitled Crania Americana, fol., Philadel- 
phia, 1839. Here I shall feel myself authorized to detain you 
a few moments in relation to some points connected with that 
elaborate work, which will continue a lasting monument of his 
learning, energy, and ability. 
, as they 
have existed duting the long persistence of that imperishable 
Man 
zones, climates, continents, and epochs. — Such investigations 
might well serve to throw a brilliant light upon many dark ques 
tions both in history and chronology, as well as in morals and 
ith 
thereto. He accordingly commenced his collection of humal 
crania, and in the year 1790 published the first of his Decades 
Craniorum, which work was continued at intervals until the last 
of the Decades appeared, in 1828, having been in course of pu 
a a period of thirty-nine years. 
ades contain the highly expressive outlines of sixty 
five crania with faint linear shadings, representing the pecullat 
form and appearance of various races and families of mankiut. 
They arevhighly expressive delineations; because they convey 
most explicit notions of the cranioscopical peculiarities of differ 
ent races of men 
than three centuries since the revival of letters, during which the 
industry and zeal of the learned had been ser nae 
| rtosum fere usque excessum™ 
was, as yet, almost impossible to meet, sh the richest museums, 
With any specimens illustrative of the natural history of mal; 
and further, he was astonished to learn that the subject had 
neglected by the most classical and voluminous writers of pa 
