THE CANADIAN JOURNAL. 



NEW SERIES. 



No. XLI.— SEPTEMBEE, 1862. 



ETHNICAL FORMS AND UNDESIGNED ARTIFICIAL DIS- 

 TORTIONS OF THE HUMAN CRANIUM. 



BY DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., 



PEOFESSOE OF HISTORY AND ENGLISH LITEEA.TUEE, UNIVEESITT COLLEGE, TOEONTO. 



The differences between man and all other animals appear to be 

 so clearly defined, that the Naturalist was long induced to overlook 

 those which distinguish different races of men, and to regard any 

 diversities of structure or relative proportions in the human form 

 as mere variations from one common or ideal type. Neverthe- 

 less the craniologist, at the very commencement of his investiga- 

 tions, is led to recognise certain essential varieties of form ; though 

 stUl tempted, like Blumenbach, to refer all these to some " Cauca- 

 sian" or other assumed highest type. Before, however, the ethno- 

 logist directed his attention to such researches, the artist had 

 sought this type in the beautiful realisations of Greek sculpture ; 

 and by such means be determined the long-accepted statuary-scale of 

 the human head and figure. The influence of this artistic ideal on 

 the later speculations of the ethnologist should not be overlooked. 

 It guided Camper in assigning the laws of his facial angle ; con- 

 trolled Blumenbach in his determination of the cranial peculiarities 



Vol. VII. X 



