DIFFERENT RACES OF MANKIND. 353 



futile efforts to derive some of them from China and from the Indian Archipelago are 

 too imaginary and baseless to deserve attention. 



The Mortonian collection is rich in the skulls of ancient Egyptians, and the curious 

 remarks of Morton on the size of the brain of these people, as demonstrated by his 

 investigations, must not be passed over. They tend powerfully to give support to the 

 position already hinted at, that size of brain in general is not to be looked upon as 

 directly in proportion to mental power, but rather that both are the special endow- 

 ments in different degrees of different races. He says, in his fourth conclusion : "The 

 ancient Egyptians, whose civilization antedates that of all other people, and whose 

 country has been justly called 'the cradle of the arts and sciences,' have the least- 

 sized brain of any Caucasian nation, excepting the Hindoos." Here Morton was led 

 astray by the term Caucasian and his hypothetical notions. It has yet to be proved 

 that there is any connection between the ancient Egyptians, Hindoos, and Caucasians 

 or Europeans. In ihis fifth conclusion he adds : " The Negro brain is nine cubic 

 inches less than the Teutonic, and three cubic inches larger than the ancient Egypt- 

 ians."'=- If these facts should receive further confirmation from the examination of 

 the large number of ancient Egyptian skulls which have recently been added to the 

 Museums of Paris, — and there is every reason to expect that they will be so con- 

 firmed, — they present us with the relics of the most ancient civilized people on the 

 face of the earth, who may most probably be regarded as a civilized race, using the 

 term in the sense of a naturally highly endowed race, from their earliest appearance; 

 and yet these renowned people had a smaller cerebral development than the most 

 famous uncivilizable race known in all ages, — the Negro races. Surely the qualities 

 of the brain are not to be estimated solely by the balances. Surely development is 

 not the only and true key to the secrets nature has hidden in organized beings. 



When we next of all approach American races in the mass, in which races the 

 Mortonian collection, although insignificant in the amount of its specimens when we 

 regard the numerous races which have perished under the influence of the great 

 tyrant, — the highly civilized European, — is and ever will remain far richer than any 

 other, we find exactly the same phenomena as among the peoples of Africa. There 

 are, as pointed out by Morton, two great classes : the large-brained and the small- 

 brained peoples. The former he designates the '• Barbarous Tribes" of America, and 

 in his third conclusion tells us that they possessed "a much larger brain than the 

 demi-civilized Peruvians or Mexicans." This is a noteworthy conclusion, where the 

 uncivilized races have the larger brains. It is almost needless to add that American 

 races in the aggregate fall below the average brain-weight of European races. They 

 closely agree with the Asiatic races in their average brain-weight. 



* It would appear somewhat singular that Mortou did not further apply this conclasion to the opinion that 

 volume of brain is equivalent to intellectual power. 



80 



