PREFACE. V 



living at a remote distance from each other and from me, to whom I take this 

 occasion to express my grateful acknowledgments. The first of these gentlemen 

 is my yenerable and much-honored uncle, James Morton, Esq., of Clonmel, 

 Ireland ; the other, my friend William Maclure, Esq., late of this city, and now 

 resident in Mexico, well known as the distinguished President of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. I claim, however, some merit for having 

 commenced publication when my subscription list bore but fifteen names ; and I 

 persisted for a long time on my own resources, although frequently apprehensive 

 that an enterprise which never had gain for its object, would add pecuniary loss to 

 numberless vexations. 



I do not even now consider my task as wholly completed. On the contrary 

 the illustrations of the Mexican nations are too few for satisfactory comparison 

 owing to the extreme difficulty of obtaining authentic crania of those people. 

 This deficiency, however, is likely to be soon obviated by the kindness of some 

 friends of science in Mexico ; and these materials, when received, together with 

 some that came to hand too late for use, and many others that are expected, will 

 enable me to complete my design by the publication of a small Supplementary 

 Volume; in which it will further be my aim to extend and revise both the 

 Anatomical and Phrenological Tables, and to give basal views of at least a part of 

 the crania delineated. I shall also take occasion to measure the anterior and 

 posterior chambers of the skull in the four exotic races of men, in order to 

 institute a comparison between them respectively, and between them and the 

 American Race. But in order to accomplish this object, a very extended series 

 of crania is of course indispensable ; and the author therefore respectfully solicits 

 the further aid of gentlemen interested in the cause of science, in procuring the 

 skulls of all nations^ and forwarding them to his address in this city. Nor can I 

 close this preface without recording my sincere thanks to George R. Gliddon, Esq., 

 United States Consul at Cairo, in Egypt, for the singular zeal with which he has 

 promoted my wishes in this respect ; the series of crania he has already obtained 

 for my use, of many nations, both ancient and modern, is perhaps without a rival 

 in any existing collection ; and will enable me, when it reaches this country, to 

 pursue my comparisons on an extended scale. 



Philadelphia, October, 1, 1839. 



B 



