Morton^s Crania Americana. 341 



Art. XX. — Crania Americana ; or a Comparative view of the 

 Skulls of various Aboriginal Nations of North and South 

 America ; to which is prefixed afi Essay on the Varieties of the 

 Human Species, illustrated by seventy-eight plates and a col- 

 ored map ; by Samuel George Morton, M. D., Professor of 

 Anatomy in the medical department of Pennsylvania College, 

 at Philadelphia, &c. &c. Philadelphia: J. Dobson. London: 

 Simpkin, Marshall & Co. Letter Press, pp. 296, folio, 1839. 



We hail this work as the most extensive and valuable contri- 

 bution to the natural history of man, which has yet appeared on 

 the American continent, and anticipate for it a cordial reception 

 by scientific men not only in the United States, but in Europe. 

 The subject is one of great interest, and Dr. Morton has treated 

 it in a manner at once scientific and pleasing, while the beauty 

 and accuracy of his lithographic plates are not surpassed by any 

 of the modern illustrations of science. 



The principal design of the work, says Dr. Morton, has been 

 '' to give accurate delineations of the crania of more than forty 

 Indian nations, Peruvian, Brazilian and Mexican, together with 

 a particularly extended series from North America, from the Pa- 

 cific Ocean to the Atlantic, and from Florida to the region of the 

 Polar tribes. Especial attention has also been given to the sin- 

 gular distortions of the skull caused by mechanical contrivances 

 in use among various nations, Peruvians, Charibs, Natches, and 

 the tribes inhabiting the Oregon Territory." His materials, in 

 this department, are so ample^ that he has been enabled to give a 

 full exposition of the subject. He has also bestowed particular 

 attention on the crania from the mounds of this country, which 

 have been compared with similar relics, derived both from ancient 

 and modern tribes, " in order to examine, by the evidence of 

 osteological facts, whether the American aborigines, of all epochs, 

 have belonged to one race, or to a plurality of races." 



The introductory Essay, '• on the varieties of the human spe- 

 cies," occupies ninety-five pages. It is learned, lucid, and like 

 the whole work, classically written. The author notices the great 

 diversities of opinion that have existed among naturalists regard- 

 ing the grouping of mankind into races ; Linnasus referred 

 all the human family to five races ; Buffon proposed six great di- 



