344 Morton^ s Crania Americana. 



tremely vague. The line adopted runs from the Ganges in a 

 nortliwestern direction to the Caspian Sea, and thence to the 

 River Obi, in Russia. " At a comparatively recent period, how- 

 ever, several Mongolian nations have established themselves in 

 Europe ; as the Samoyedes, Laplanders, &c." The Ethiopian 

 line is drawn north of the Senegal River, obliquely east and 

 south to the southern frontier of Abyssinia, and thence to Cape 

 Guardafui, thus embracing the Atlas Mountains. " Of the latter, 

 little is known ; but many negro nations inhabit to the north of 

 them, at the same time that the Arab tribes have penetrated far 

 beyond them to the south, and in some places have formed a 

 mixed race with the natives." 



Dr. Morton gives a brief but clear description, extending to his 

 91st page, of the leading characteristics of each of these families, 

 accompanying his text by references to the authorities from which 

 the information is drawn. The labor and accuracy of the true 

 philosopher are here conspicuous. After perusing these de- 

 tails, however, we are strongly impressed with the conviction 

 that this branch of science is still only in its infancy. The de- 

 scriptions of the mental qualities which distinguish the different 

 families of mankind, given even by the best travellers, are vague 

 and entirely popular. There is scarcely an instance of the 

 specification of well defined mental faculties, present or absent 

 in the races, or possessed in peculiar combinations ; nothing, in 

 short, which indicates that the travellers possessed a mental phi- 

 losophy under the different heads of which they could classify 

 and particularize the characteristic qualities of mind which they 

 observed, as the botanists describe and classify plants, or the ge- 

 ologists minerals. The anatomical characters of the races, also, 

 are still confined to a few particulars, and many even of these 

 have been drawn from the inspection of a very limited number 

 of specimens. The subject, however, possesses so much inhe- 

 rent interest and importance, that we may expect rapid advances 

 to be made in its future development. 



The unity of the human species is assumed by Dr. Mor- 

 ton. It is known that the hlack race possess an apparatus in 

 the skin, which is wanting in that of the white race. Flou- 

 rens states that there " are, in the skin of the lohite race, three 

 distinct laminae or membranes — the derm, and two epidei'ms ; 

 and in the skin of the black race, there is, besides the derm 



