270 EACE HEAD-FOKMS AND THEIR 



Eaces perish, nevertheless, as well as individuals. But some of the 

 distinguishing characteristics of buried races have out-lasted the over' 

 throw of nationalities, and the results of revolutions traceable to the 

 very causes which they serve to illustrate. Hence the interest 

 attaching to the collection and study of human crania. " Of all the 

 peculiarities in the form of the bony fabric/' says Dr. Prichard, " those 

 of the skull are the most striking and distinguishing. It is in the 

 head that we find the varieties most strongly characteristic of different 

 races." By such evidence we may review successive migrations and 

 revolutions, even of prehistoric times : as the geologist finds the tide 

 marks of still remoter ages petrified in the living rock. 



A skilled comparative anatomist and ethnologist, on forming a col- 

 lection of crania from some old frontier burial-ground on this American 

 continent, would experience little difficulty in arranging them, for the 

 most part, according to ethnical classification. He would, indeed, meet 

 with puzzling variations from his assumed types; and the greater his 

 experience, the more readily would he admit that among crania collected 

 from cemeteries exclusively pertaining to races apparently the most pure, 

 examples are to be looked for irreconcileable with their preconceived 

 head-forms : and which, if submitted to him without some such clue to 

 affinity as the locality indicates, he would be unable to assign with cer- 

 tainty to any specific race. Nevertheless, after all due allowance for 

 such abnormal crania, there is, on the whole, a sufficiently well-defined 

 prevalence of certain specialities in form and proportions, to guide the 

 craniologist in an approximate classification open to little dispute. As 

 a general rule, it may be assumed that he is not likely to confound the 

 European with the American Indian skull, or either with that of the 

 Negro; nor can he err in the classification, at least, of well marked 

 examples of minor types, such as separate those of European descent 

 into French, German and English. He would find, accordingly, among 

 the crania of the supposed frontier cemetery a brachycephalic, or short 

 and broad skull, with largely developed maxillaries and zygomata, 

 prominent superciliary ridges, a comparatively narrow and poorly 

 developed frontal region, and flattened or truncated occiput, great 

 facial breadth, both at the cheek bones and in the square, massive 

 lower jaw, and prominence in the nasal bones. This he would recog- 

 nise as the native American head: Micmac, Abenaki, Narraganset, 

 M'lhicaii, Iroquois, Massachusett, Powhattan, or the like, according to 

 the locality of hi.^ researches. Tribal deviations from the assumed 



