338 Obituary of Dr Samuel George Morton. 
I listen for thy voice in vain, 
E’en when I deem thee nigh ; 
Yet ere I venture to complain, 
Thou know’st the reason why. 
And yet when, worldly cares forgot, 
I watch the vacant air; 
I see thee not, I hear thee not, 
Yet know that thou art there.” 
He was the founder of the school of ethnology in America. 
His taste for natural science and for anthropology was ac- 
quired at the university here (Edinburgh); and he studied at, 
a time when the university was in its glory, and was the centre 
of taste and philosophy, as well as of science, in Great Britain. 
He graduated here. His thesis (Tentamen Inaugurale de 
Corporis Dolore) was written in a clear and lucid style. 
The question now which involves the common origin of 
races is exciting much keen discussion in the scientific 
world, and Morton threw much light on the subject. 
The original diversity of races is only admitted by a few. 
Morton began his study of anthropology in 1828. His 
method of comparing crania (by the norma verticalis), and 
his distribution of races, were then both undisputed. In 
the year 1827, he published an “ Analysis of Tabular Spar.” 
About the same time he was also much employed in study- 
ing paleontology, and he published a volume on this subject, 
entitled “ Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous 
Group of the United States,” illustrated with nineteen ad- 
mirable plates. In 1831 he read a paper to the American 
Academy of Sciences on.“ Some Parasitic Worms ;” another 
in 1841, on “ An Albino Racoon ;” and a third in 1844, on 
a * Supposed New Species of Hippopotamus.” His Crania 
Americana, a very able work, he published in 1839. He 
published his renowned work the Crania Mgyptiaca, well 
known to all writers on ethnology, in 1844. In the same 
year he published a paper entitled, “ An Inquiry into the 
distinctive characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of Ame- 
rica.’ Before his death he was actively engaged in the study — 
of Archeology—Kgyptian, Assyrian, and American. He — 
devoted much time to the subject of hybridity. 
