SECT. IV.] CRANIAL VARIATIONS. 225 



tions the skull of a Lithuanian which perfectly resembled that 

 of a Congo-Negro, and Godron 1 mentions a Negro skull of a 

 perfectly European shape. That Retzius 2 found the old Swed- 

 ish skull corresponding with the present shape proves but little 

 for the constancy of forms, when it is considered that great 

 variations in this respect prevail among the same people. "I 

 have," says Prince Max, 3 " compared a whole series of genuine 

 Mandan skulls, and found great differences as regards the re- 

 ceding forehead and the flattening of the skull." Some have 

 perpendicular, others receding foreheads. 4 Engel, 5 who assumes 

 twelve chief types, seems by his measurements to confirm the 

 observations of Weber. He includes in his third form, besides 

 Germans and Tschechs, also Magyars, a Javanese, a Guanche, 

 and a Bedouin. In his sixth form there are, besides Tschechs and 

 Germans, the skulls of several Negroes, a Hottentot, a Malabar, 

 a Bengalese, a New Zealander. In his tenth chief form the 

 skull of a Negro child, an American Indian, etc. If Engel 6 is 

 further of opinion that there are race-types, and even caste- 

 types of crania, which, however, are not inherited, but chiefly 

 depend on the nature of aliment, and the thickness of bone, 

 that is to say, on the addition of osseous matter received by 

 the skull, we might expect that the thickness of the cranial 

 bones should be unexceptionally analogous to the cranial forms, 

 which, however, is not confirmed by the facts. 



The attempts of a natural division of mankind rest princi- 

 cipally upon the supposition that the chief types possess a 

 high degree of constancy, and this enables us to ascertain the 

 affinity of varieties which constitute the great divisions of man- 

 kind. 7 The weakness of the basis upon which these attempts 



1 " De Fespece et des races," p. 106, Nancy, 1848. 



2 Mullens " Archiv," p. 94, 1845. 



3 " Eeise in N. Am.," i, 235. 



4 Ibid., ii, 106. 



5 Unters. iiber Schadelformen," 1851. 



6 Page 120. 



7 In a more rational way than we are accustomed to find in the American 

 school, Meigs (in Nott and Gliddon, " Indigenoiis races," etc., pp. 223, 349) 

 observes, that not only is every cranial type subject to change by climate, 

 but similarity of its type proves as little a common origin as variation proves 

 a different origin. We are, then, entitled to ask with some surprise, what 

 this school contends for, if it admits that the skull is no certain mark of 

 descent ? 



