410 SUPPOSED PREVALENCE OF ONE CRANIAL TYPE 



differ in intellectual character."* Any further difficulty, arising from 

 physical differences, is sought to be overcome by the application of 

 the hypothesis that " these races originated in nations, and not in a 

 single pair ; thus forming proximate but not identical species ."f 

 But it is not fairly grappled with by any of the writers of " the 

 American School of Ethnology." The closest approximation to a 

 recognition of the legitimate deduction from such contrasting cranial 

 characteristics is made by Dr. Morton himself, where he remarks in 

 reference to the larger cerebral capacity of the Indian in his savage 

 state, than of the demi-civilized Peruvian or ancient Mexican : 

 " Something may be attributed to a primitive difference of stock ; 

 but more, perhaps, to the contrasted activity of the two races." It 

 is to be noted, moreover, that Dr. Morton distinctly recognises cer- 

 tain unmistakeable diversities of form into which the assumed 

 American cranial type is subdivided. He thus remarks, in his Crania 

 Americana, under the head : General observations on the barbarous 

 nations composing the American family: — " After examining a great 

 number of skulls, I find that the nations east of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, together with the cognate tribes, have the head more 

 elongated than any other Americans. This remark applies especially 

 to the great Lenape stock, the Iroquois, and the Cherokees. To the 

 west of the Mississippi we again meet with the elongated head in the 

 Mandans, Ricaras, Assinaboins and some other tribes." But to this, 

 Dr. Morton superadds the further remark: " Yet even in these in- 

 stances the characteristic truncature of the occiput is more or less 

 obvious, while many nations east of the Rocky Mountains have the 

 rounded head so characteristic of the race, as the Osages, Ottoes, 

 Missouris, Dacotas, and numerous others. The same conformation is 

 common in Florida ; but some of these nations are evidently of the 

 Toltecan family, as both their characteristics and traditions testify. 

 The head of the Charibs, as well of the Antilles as of Terra 

 Firrna, are also naturally rounded ; and we trace this character as 

 far as we have had opportunity for examination through the nation 1 * 

 east of the Andes, the Patagonians and the tribes of Chili. In fact, 

 the flatness of the occipital portion of the cranium will probably be 

 found to characterise a greater or less number of individuals in every 

 existing tribe from Terra del Fuego to the Canadas. If their skulls 

 be viewed from behind, we observe the occipital outline to be moder- 

 ately curved outward, wide at the occipital protuberances, and full 



* Crania Americana, p. 260. 

 t Types of Mankind, p. 276. 

 X Crania Americana, p. 65. 



