8 LECTURE I. 



pied many years iu investigating, with meter and balance, tlie 

 laws of liiiman growth in Belgium, and in thus constructing, so 

 to speak, what he calls " the average man," as obtained from the 

 mean of a great number of individual observations. And yet 

 these measurements and weights apply only to a small stock, in- 

 habiting but a little corner of the globe, and exhibiting but 

 few of the relative proportions of the bodily organs. 



Very recently. Professor Welcker of Halle has attempted to 

 construct, from a comparatively small number of crania, the 

 normal skull of the Germanic stock, or in other words, to find 

 out the peculiarities belonging to most Grerman skulls ; and 

 though thirty normal male, and as many female skulls have 

 been measured and registered, still this number is not sufficient 

 to yield an absolutely certain average. Recollect, now, that 

 investigations of the same nature as these, which required 

 years, though confined to a small district, are to be extended 

 to all parts of the globe, with a view to the acquisition of 

 such data as we possess with respect to Belgian recruits and 

 German skulls, and contrast with this the inadequacy of the 

 means we at present possess of obtaining the materials needful 

 for our inqmry. The travelling natm-ahst, even when he sails 

 iu the Novara, under the Austrian flag, may congratulate 

 himself if here and there soldiers, porters, sailors, or loose 

 women ofier themselves for examination, or if the chiefs of 

 some tribes allow themselves to be photographed. In southern 

 parts, where nakedness is not deemed indecent, observation is 

 in this respect facilitated ; but in the north, where the climate 

 forces man to cover the body with skins night and day, as among 

 the Esquimaux, Samoiedes, and Tschuktshes, permission to view 

 the naked body is not so readily conceded. And finally, where 

 shall we find naturalists dwelling for many years among foreign 

 races, in order to secure opportunities for comparative researches? 



We shall see in the course of these lectures, that the cranium, 

 the most important part of the osseous system, containing 

 as it does the organ of the mind, deserves the closest examina- 

 tion. Many naturalists, like Blumenbach at Gottingen, ilorton 

 in America, and others, have devoted much of their time to the 

 formation of collections of crania, representing the various types 



