c "y^a 



1855.] 



HINTS FOR THE FORMATION OP A CANADIAN COLLECTION OF ANCIENT CRANIA. 



345 



Cljt Cainibiaii |0iiriuil 



TORONTO, OCTOBER, 185 5. 



Hints for the Formation of a Canadian Collection of Ancient 

 Crania, 



The value which attaches to ancient skulls as indices of the 

 characteristics of extinct races, is being more and more gene- 

 rally appreciated with the increasing results of extended ob- 

 servation. Camper, the originator of the ideal facial angle, 

 was the first of modern scientific craniologists who aimed at 

 establishing a system of cla.ssifyiug races by means of cranial 

 conformation ; and with him must be noted Daubenton, the 

 contemporary and fellow-labourer of BuflFon, who firet drew 

 attention to some of the most remarkable elements of compari- 

 son, in the characteristics of the base of the skull, both in 

 comparative anatomy, as between the ape and man, and be- 

 tween the known races of men, as the Negro and European. 

 These wore luUowed by Blumenbach, to whom we owe the ac- 

 cepted application of some of the most familiar ethnolo- 

 gical terms, such as' Mongolian, Ethiopian, and, above all, 

 Cdiwasian. Of these the last was undoubtedly founded on 

 error, and, as now commonly employed, has a falser and more 

 misleading import than any it was designed to convey by its 

 originator. Hunter, Cuviei', and other naturalists, more or 

 less incidentally noticed the same elements of comparison, and 

 Dr. Priohard, with a rare combination of learning and powers 

 of observation, began so early as IJOS, by the publication of 

 his Du Ilominum Varietatihut;, a series of works which have 

 exercised the most important influence on the science of Eth- 

 nology. 



While the latter of these works were in progress, a distin- 

 guished American physiologist, Dr. Samuel George Morton of 

 Philadelphia, devoted himself to craniological investigation 

 with a special view to the elucidation of the many obscure 

 points relative to the ancient and existing native races of the 

 new world. The first ta.sk he proposed to himself was the ex- 

 amination and comparison of the crania of the Indian tribes of 

 North and South America. In following out his investigation 

 he enlisted many zealous coadjutors in his service, and ob- 

 tained .skulls from ancient iMcxican and Peruvian sepulchres, 

 and from the grave mounds of the Southern States and 

 of Central America. The first fruits of this was the publica- 

 tion, in 1839, of his Vrannt. Americana, a work of the utmost 

 value in this department of physical ethnology. Dr. Jlorton 

 next proceeded to extend his labours into the most ancient 

 areas of human colonisation, and with the aid of Mr. G. 11. 

 Gliddon, the United States Consul at Cairo, in Egypt, he ob- 

 tained an important collection of skulls from the venerable 

 catacombs of the Nile valley. The result of this was the pub- 

 lication of another work, the Crania ^Eiji/ptiaca, in 1844, 

 which met with the highest commendations from the Archreolo- 

 gists and Ethnologists of Europe. Dr. iMorton's death took 

 place in 1851, while engaged in the prosecution of researches 

 c;ilculatcd still further to elucidate the science to which he had 

 already made such valuable contributions. Tiic extensive col- 

 lection of crania which he had made, including those which 

 furnished the data for the two great works named above, has 

 since been purchased from his widow and added to the Cabinet 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadeljiliia. 



Vor.. IIL, No. 15, October, 1S55. 



European Ethnologists have not failed to appreciate the im- 

 portance of such observations, and valuable collections of 

 ancient crania are now to be met with in Paris, Stockholm, 

 Copenhagen, Edinburgh, and other European capitals. E.spe- 

 cial attention has more recently been directed to the subject in 

 ]5ritain, and a work is now projected by Joseph Barnard Davis, 

 Esq., and Dr. John Thurnam, after the model of Dr. Morton's 

 Crania Americana, specially devoted to the illustration of the 

 Ethnology of Great Britain and Ireland by means of " delinia- 

 tions of the skulls of the aboriginal inhabitants of the British 

 Islands, and of the races immediately .succeeding them." 



The following extract from the prospectus of this work, 

 which is to bear the title of Crania, Brilannica, will suflSce to 

 show the aim of its authors, and the nature of the truths they 

 hope to elucidate : — 



" Amid an attention to the Natural History of Man, such aa basnever 

 before been excited, embracing the inliabitants of every region and 

 remote isUmd of the globe, it seems an anomaly, that the people who 

 first roamed the wilds and forests of our native country should have 

 hitherto attracted so little regard. There have been many controver- 

 sies to decide the exact position held by the ancient Britons in the 

 scale of civilization. Antiquaries have appealed to the numerous 

 relics of their arts, and history adduces evidences of their prowess, 

 their patriotic valour, and of their heroic resistance of even Koniau 

 conquest. Their remaining works have been traced out and deciphered 

 with the most patient investigation. But it is remarkable, that their 

 personal remains — their bones, — entombed in Barrows over so many 

 districts of these islands, have, until recently, not been objects of at- 

 traction even to coUectois ; — unlike the geologist, who has gathei-ed 

 up and treasured every osteological fragment of the races of animals 

 coming within his domain. Hitherto no publication has been devoted 

 to the chief vestige of the organization of the primitive Briton and his 

 successors, that most important and instructive of all — his Cranium. 

 J n the skulls themselves, we have the very " heart of heart" of all 

 their remains, which the gnawing " tooth of time and razure of obli- 

 vion" have spared. These present an e.xact measure of their differing 

 cerebral organization, of their intellect and feelings; and may be said 

 to be impressed with a vivid outliue of their very features and ex- 

 pressions. 



It is believed that a sufficient number of these precious relics have 

 now been exhumed from Barrows and other Tombs, in which the living 

 hands of their brethren (observing the dictates of eternal love, or the 

 rites of an .all-pervading superstition, based in inextinguishable aspira- 

 tions) deposited them, to enable us not merely to reproduce the most 

 lively and forcible traits of the primieval Celtic hunter or warrior, and 

 his Roman conqueror, succeeded by Saxon or Angle chieftains and 

 settlers, and, later still, by the Vikings of Scandinavia ; but also to 

 indicate the peculiarities "which marked the different tribes and races 

 who have peopled the diversified regions of the British Islands ; and 

 as we thus picture our varied ancestry, to deduce, at the same time, 

 their position in the scale of civilization by the tests of acui-ate repre- 

 sentation and admeasurement. 



These primitive remains are of great interest — of real national 

 value, — and deserve the most careful examination and study, that they 

 may bo delineated with the utmost precision — with artistic skill wor- 

 thy of the subject ; and, being thus perpetuated, they will be rescued 

 from the grasp of accidental destruction, and the further inroads of 

 fretting age. 



In son\e countries of Europe, collections of Crania, such as nro 

 above alluded to, have thrown much light on the history and relations 

 of the early races inhabiting them. The results obtained from re- 

 searches ot" this kind in the Scandinavian kingdoms, have been pre- 

 sented to the world in the writings of Eschricht, Retzius, and Nilsson. 

 In America, the great master of the science, the late Profcs.-ior Morton, 

 founded his classical workson the Aborigines of the Western World and f ho 

 ancient Kpyptians, upon skulls obtained from the mounds and burial- 

 places of the former, and the Catacombs of the land of the Pharaohs. 

 In our own country, as Dr. Trichard, our best ethnological authority, 

 repeatedly laments, nothing of the kind, except on the most inade- 

 quate scale, has yet been attempted. l"ew countries, howoTcr, pro- 

 sent greater facilities for an inquiry of this description." 



The authors accordingly jiropose to issue this work by sub- 

 scription, in six parts of an imperial quarto size, each contain- 



