INTE.] CKANIAL CAPACITY. 261 



mooted at all, it was under tlie assumption that the psychical 

 peculiarities of nations corresponded with their physical charac- 

 ters, especially with the structure of the skull ; in short, these 

 things were treated with a levity not unusual among physio- 

 logists when speaking of psychology. From the external re- 

 semblance of the Negro to the ape, the internal resemblance 

 was deduced without much ado. The cranial capacity was, 

 however, chiefly relied upon to measure the mental capacity. 



Morton, especially, has endeavoured to establish that the 

 mental capacity of nations or races is always proportional to 

 the volume of the head ; and though, as we shall show, the 

 contrary results from what he endeavours to prove, his asser- 

 tions have been generally assented to. 1 In Germany, the 

 same views were previously held. Recently, however, Engel 2 

 observed that there were considerable doubts whether the 

 mass of the brain differed in crania of different types ; or 

 whether the contraction of the skull in one direction was not 

 compensated by an expansion in another; and whether the 

 various cranial shapes had any influence on cerebral activity. 

 Though we may fully acknowledge the importance of the fact 

 that the Indo-Germanic and Semitic nations, which have ever 

 been, and still are, the representatives of civilization (from the 

 Semitic races the three chief theistical religions have emanated), 

 either excel, or at any rate do not yield, in cerebral develop- 

 ment to any other race ; and assuming even as probable the 

 assertion of Lawrence, 3 that the great diversities in the mental 

 development of nations can only be explained from innate dif- 

 ferences of cerebral structure ; still the axiom, that the shape 

 and capacity of the skull indicates the proportion of mental 

 capacity, remains unproved. ' ' Why," asks Prichard, pointedly, 

 " have the Georgians, despite their Greek crania, never been 

 mentally distinguished? Why has Greek and Roman civili- 

 zation yielded before the Germanic ? Why, we may ask, has 

 it at all declined, since the cranial shape and the cerebral struc- 



1 See Hamilton Smith, p. 159 ; P. de Remusat, " Revue des deux Mondes," 

 4me livre, 1854. 



2 " Untersuchungen iiber Schadelformen," p. 124. 



3 " Lectures," p. 416, 3rd edit., 1823. 



