ARTICLE I11. 
Observations on Egyptian Ethnography, derived from Anatomy, History, and the Monu- 
ments. By Samuel George Morton, M.D. Read December 16, 1842; January 6, 
and April 6, 1843. 
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 
Eevprt is justly regarded as the parent of civilization, the cradle of the arts, the land 
of mystery. Her monuments excite our wonder, and her history confounds chronology; 
and the very people who thronged her cities would be unknown to us, were it not for 
those vast sepulchres whence the dead have arisen, as it were, to bear witness for them- 
selves and their country. Yet even now, the physical characteristics of the ancient 
Egyptians are regarded with singular diversity of opinion by the learned, who variously 
refer them to the Jews, Arabs, Hindoos, Nubians, and Negroes. HEiven the details of 
organic ‘structure have been involved in the same uncertainty,—the configuration of 
the head, the position of the ear, the form of the teeth, the colour of the skin, and the 
texture of the hair; while the great question is itself undetermined—whether civilization 
ascended or descended the Nile;—whether it had its origin in Egypt or in Ethiopia. 
These conflicting opinions long since made me desirous to investigate the subject for 
myself; but the many difficulties in the way of obtaining adequate materials, compelled 
me to suspend the inquiry; and it is only within a recent period that I have been able 
effectively to resume it. It gives me great pleasure to state, that my present facilities 
have been almost exclusively derived, directly or indirectly, from the scientific zeal and 
personal friendship of George R. Gliddon, Esq., late United States consul for the city of 
Cairo. During a former visit to the United States, this gentleman entered warmly into 
my views and wishes; and on his return to the East, in 1838, he commenced his 
researches on my behalf; and in the course of his various travels in Egypt and in 
Nubia, as far as the second Cataract, he procured one hundred and thirty-seven human 
crania, of which one hundred pertain to the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. Of these last, 
seventeen were most obligingly sent me, at the instance of Mr. Gliddon, by M. Clot Bey, 
the distinguished Surgeon in chief to the Viceroy of Egypt. They are arranged by the 
latter gentleman into two series, the Pharaonic, and the Ptolemaic; but without availing 
myself of this classification, I have merely regarded them in reference to their national 
characters. 
Mr. Gliddon’s residence for the greater part of twenty-three years in Egypt, and his 
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