2 
was formed in England, for the purpose of collecting information " concerning 
the character, habits and wants of the uncivilized tribes." But the benevolent 
objects of the Society finally engrossed the attention of its members to the ex- 
clusion of the ethnological. Two years later, Dr. Prichard, in the unwearied 
pursuit of his favorite study, called the attention of the British Association, then 
in session at Birmingham, to the rapid manner in which certain varieties of the 
human race were hastening on to extinction. He suggested to the Association 
the importance of making some effort to rescue from utter oblivion, the many 
historical, physiological and philological details, constituting, so to speak, the 
biography of these decaying races. His interesting paper, read before the 
Natural Historical Section of the Association, was, in fact, an appeal in behalf 
of Ethnology. This appeal met with a lively response in the appointment of a 
Committee to prepare a set of queries to be addressed to travellers and others 
whose opportunities were such as to enable them to give satisfactory answers 
to these queries. About the same time the Ethnographical Society of Paris, 
published a similar set of questions for travellers. In 1842, Dr. King, of London, 
urged upon the scientific public, the wants and interests of Ethnology, in a 
prospectus issued July 20th, for the formation of an Ethnological Society. In 
1844, after many of the barbarous races had disappeared forever from the face 
of the earth, Drs. King and Hodgkin endeavored in conjunction, '* to excite 
suflQcient interest to command the necessary means for preserving a record of 
the living, and of that which remains of the dead." {Anniversary Address to 
the Ethnological Society of London^ 25th May, 1844.) In 1841 we find the late 
Mr. Geo. R. Gliddon appealing to the Antiquaries of Europe in behalf of the 
monuments of Egypt, which at that time, to use his own language, "were dis- 
appearing with frightful rapidity from the banks of the Nile." (^Otia JEgypiiaca, 
p. 7). In 1852, in a highly interesting pamphlet, entitled " Questions Relatives 
d, I' Mhnologie Ancienne de la France^'''' read before the Society of Antiquaries of 
that country, M. Alfred Maury pressed upon the attention of the correspondents 
of the Society, the necessity of investigating, ere it was too late, the physiog- 
nomical and national characters of the dissimilar races inhabiting the different 
cantons of France; their costumes, usages, linguistic and cognominal peculiari- 
ties, &c. Prichard long ago hoped that specimens of the craniology of Britain 
would not be suffered to fall into decay. In 1855 Mr. A. H. Rhind, actuated 
by the same feeling, sent forth a " vigorous appeal for the preservation of 
the ' monuments of primeval Britain,' " which appeal has found a truly 
scientific and valuable response in the Crania Britannica of Messrs. Davis and 
Thurnam, who are successfully attempting " to rescue and perpetuate the 
faithful lineaments of a sufiicient number of the skulls of the ancient races of 
Britain, to preserve authentic data for the future." Davis strenuously urges 
the importance of studying the diversified races of the British Islands " with 
constant reference to their origin and history, and taking their cranial and 
other physical properties as a basis." 
The human skull is so positively distinctive of race, that it claims at the hands 
of the student of Anthropology the most minute examination. The receptacle of 
the brain, of the organs of the senses and the masticatory apparatus, it exhibits 
race-characters more striking and distinguishing than those presented by any 
other part of the bony system. The pelvis, perhaps, comes next to it in ethno- 
graphic importance. The configuration of the skull influences to a considerable 
extent the characters of the countenance and shape of the features. " Hence, 
our zoological study of man," says Lawrence, writing in 1819, " will be greatly 
assisted by carefully examining genuine specimens of the skulls of different 
nations, which are easily prepared and preserved, maybe conveniently handled 
and surveyed, considered in various points of view and compared to each other." 
Just twenty-one years afterwards, Wilde of Dublin wrote : " It is now uni- 
versally admitted by the first authorities in this science, that to the form and 
character of the head can we alone refer in order to determine the varieties of 
