432 SUPPOSED PREVALENCE OF ONE CRANIAL TYPE 



fancy. If differences of cranial conformation of so strongly defined 

 a character, as are thus shown to exist between various ancient 

 and modern people of America, amount to no more than variations 

 within the normal range of a common type, then all the important 

 distinctions between the crania of ancient European barrows, and 

 those of living races amount to little ; and the more delicate details, 

 such as those, for example, which have been supposed to distinguish 

 the Celtic from the Germanic cranium ; the ancient Roman from 

 the Etruscan or Greek • the Sclav e from the Magyar or Turk ; or the 

 Gothic Spaniard from the Basque or Morisco, must be utterly value- 

 less. 



For the purpose of testing the assumed predominance of one uni- 

 form cranial type throughout the whole American area south of the 

 Arctic circle, by a comparison of measurements of ancient and mo- 

 dern skulls : with those of the exceptional Arctic American, the Es- 

 quimaux measurements given by Dr. Morton, have been placed along- 

 side of the others derived from the Crania Americana, in table IV. 

 Through the obliging courtesy of Dr. J. Aitken Meigs, however, I 

 am enabled to present the following table, embracing measurements 

 of fourteen Esquimaux skulls, with one exception, in the collection 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, to which they 

 have been added since Dr. Morton's deatb. Seven of these, Nos. 

 200, 674, — 679, were procured at Godhavn, Disco Island, on the coast 

 of Greenland, by Dr. B. Vreeland, U.S.N. Five of them, Nos. 

 1558, — 1562, were obtained from different localities and ancient graves 

 or cairns, by the lamented Arctic voyager, Dr. E. K. Kane. No. 

 1563, from the Danish Settlement at Upernavick, was presented to 

 the Academy by Dr. S. W. Mitchell ; and the remaining example 

 (A.) is added from a private source. The measurements in this 

 table differ in some respects from the previous ones. The fractions 

 are here •sixteenths, instead of tenths. The parietal diame- 

 ter in the previous tables indicates the extreme breath of the skull 

 between the parietal bones ; in this it is invariably taken between 

 the parietal protuberances. In lieu of the mastoid processes, the 

 meati are here selected as yielding measurements of more unvarying 

 uniformity and precision ; though they have the disadvantage of being 

 less applicable to comparisons with the living head. Bearing these 

 variations in view, the following table presents additional means for 

 instituting comparisons between the Indianand Esquimaux cranium ; 

 and also supplies some valuable data for testing the characteristics of 

 the Esquimaux skull. This Dr. Meigs describes as "large, long, nar- 



