Catalogue of Skulls of Man and the Inferior Animals, in the
collection of Samuel George Morton, M. D., Penn, and Edinb.
President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,
&c., &c. pp. 84.
It was said of Sydenham, that if, in any one way, he differed from
other men, it was in his power of continued attention—of faithful,
unbroken observation. “ It requires more strength and firmness of
mind,” says his reviewer, “ more of what deserves to be called
genius, to make a series of genuine observations on medicine, or any
other art, than to spin any number of nice hypotheses.” This justly
applies to the industrious author of the work before us. For
twenty years has he been engaged in collecting from every source
the materials of this catalogue, (.upon which, also, are based his
well known works, “ Crania jEgyptiaca,” and “ Crania Ameri-
cana.”) His cabinet, which forms a striking feature in the
Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, now
contains 1468 crania, of which 867 are human, and the remainder
those of the inferior animals.
The primary motive of the author was a comparison of the
crania in the different races of men, and these again with those of
the inferior animals; not only in reference to the exterior form,
but also to internal capacity, as indicative of the size of the
brain. Besides these strictly Ethnographic objects, the pathological
condition of the skull from diseases and wounds, as well as remark-
able developments illustrative of the principles of Phrenology and
preternatural growth of every description, were prominent in the
author’s mind.
The following analysis exhibits an Ethnographic view of the
materials contained in the entire series.
I.	Caucasian Race.—Anglo-American, 8; Anglo-Irish, 1; Armenian, 6;
Affghan, 1 ; Arab, 3 ; Arab-Egyptian or Fellah, 19 ; Celtic Irish, 5; Circas-
sian, 4; Dutch, 1 ; English, 5 ; Egyptian, Ancient 84; Grseco-Egyptian or
Pelasgic, 22; Guanche, 1 ; German, 13; Hindu, 35; Midianite, 1; Parsee,
2; Phoenician, 1; Prussian, 4; Swede, 2; Semitic-Egyptian, 7 ; Uncertain, 1.
II.	Mongolian Race.—Chinese, 7; Laplander, 1.
III.	Malay Race.—Amboynese, 3; Bornese, 2; Ballinese, 1; Cingalese,
1 ; Javanese, 5 ; Kanaka, 7 ; Makassar, 3 ; Madurese, 2 ; Malakese, 1 ; New
Zealanders, 3; Sambawese, I ; Tagelos, 1 ; Various, 4.
IV.	Aboriginal American Race.—Assinaboin, 3 ; Arausanian, 7 • Aztec,
2; Arickaree, 3 ; Chechemecan, 1 ; Cotonay, 3; Cayuga, 1 ; Cherokee, 5 ;
Chetimaches, 2; Creek, 2 ; Choctaw, 1; Charib, 2; Chippeway, 2; Chimu-
yan, 1 ; Chemesyan, 1; Chenouk, 7; Cowalitsk, 1 , Clatsap, 1; Clickitat, 1;
Chayenne, 1; Dacota, 1; Euchee, 1; Gepepscot, 1; Huron, 5 ; Illinois, 2 ■
Iroquois, 2; Kalapooyah, 1; Klatstoni, 1; Lenape, 3; Lipan, 2; Mexican,
12; Manta, 1; Mandan, 7; Minetari, 4; Missouri, 1; Mingo, 1; Miami,
6; Mohawk, 3; Menominee, 7; Massasauga, 1; Maya, 1; Mound and cave
skulls, 17; Natchez, 1 ; Natick, 1 ; Naumkeag, 1; Narraganset, 10; Nanti-
coke, 1; Ottomie, 5; Ottigamie, 3; Oneida, 1; Osage, 2; Otoe, 4; Ottowa,
4; Peruvian, 201; Pawnee, 2; Potowatomie, 3; Pames, 2; Quichua, 1;
Quinnipiak, 1; Seminole, 15 ; Sauk, 3 ; Shawnee, 4 ; Shoshone, 3 ; Tlahuica,
1 ; Tlascalan, 1 ; Upsarooka, 2 ; Winnebago, 2 ; Yamassee ? 3 ; Uncertain
tribes, 5.
V.	Negro Race.—Native African Negroes :—Benguela, 1; Bassa, 3; Con-
go, 1; Grabbo, 1 ; Mina, 1 ; Mozambique, 2; Kroo, 2; Eboe, 2; Golah, 2;
Pessah, 3 ; Dey, 2; Macua, 1; Various, 57. Negroes born in America, 12;
Embalmed Negro, 1; Caffer. 1; Hottentot, 3 ; Australian, 8; Oceanic Ne-
gro, 1 ; Hovah, 2 ; Tashmanian ? 1.
VI.	Mixed Races.—Copt, Modern, 3; Hispano-Peruvian, 2; Mulatto, 2;
Negro and Indian, 2; Negroid Egyptian, 11 ; Copt, Ancient, 2; Modern Nu-
bian? 1; Uncertain, 2.
VII.	Lunatics.—Anglo-American, 2; English, 1 ; German, 1 ; Irish, 1;
Mulatto, 2; Negro, 2.
VIII.	Idiots.—Anglo-American, 1; Dutch, 1; European, 1; Ancient
Egyptian, 2; Malay, 1 ; Negro, 1.
Skulls illustrative of growth, 7 ; Skulls illustrative of disease, 9 ; Casts of
skulls, 26.
The measurements of the internal capacity of the crania men-
tioned in this catalogue are the result of the labor of the author’s own
hands, and have been restricted to those of individuals of sixteen
years of age and upwards, at which period the brain is believed to
possess the adult size. The method of obtaining the internal capa-
city is singularly accurate, a hundred measurements not varying a
single inch. It consists in substituting leaden shot, § of an inch
in diameter, for the white mustard seed originally used. The
foramina are stopped, and the cavity of the cranium filled with
shot through the foramen magnum, until, by shaking and com-
pressing, it will contain no more. The shot are then transferred
to an accurate measure prepared for the measurement of cubic
inches, by which the internal capacity is accurately marked. The
following table expresses the size of the brain in cubic inches, as
obtained from the measurement of 623 crania of various races and
families of men.
“TABLE,*
♦The letters I. C. designate the internal capacity.
Showing the Size of the Brain in cubic inches, as obtained from the inter nal
measurement af 623 Crania of various Races and Families of Man.
RACES AND FAMILIES. No- of Largest Smallest Mean. Mean.
Skulls. I. C. I. C.
MODERN CAUCASIAN GROUP.
Teutonic Family.
Germans,	18	114	70	90	J
English,	5	105	91	96	£	92
Anglo-Americans,	7	97	§2	90	\
Pelasgic Family.	I
Persians,
Armenians,	f	10	94	™	84
Circassians,	J
Celtic Family.	J	_
Native Irish,	f	6	97	7S	87
Indostanic Family.	I	„„	„„
Bengalees, \c,	f	32	91	80
Semitic Family.	I „	„	oa
Arai,,	f	3	98	81	89
Nilotic Family.	i
Fellahs,	f 17	96	66	80
ANCIENT CAUCASIAN GROUP.
a, h Pelasgic Family.	I ^g	g-?	yj	§8
■5 g	Grseco-Egyptians,	}
g c <
2 | Nilotic Family.	? 55 Q6 6g 80
L Egyptians,	5
MONGOLIAN GROUP.
Chinese Family.	6	91	70	82
MALAY GROUP.
Malayan Family.	20	97	68	86	(Rr.
Polynesian Family.	3	84	82	83	'J
AMERICAN GROUP.
Toltecan Family. .	J
Peruvians,	>	155	101	58	75
Mexicans,	)	22	92	67	79
Barbarous Tribes.	1
Iroquois,	'
Lenapi,	> 161	104	70	84
Cherokee,
Shoshoni, \c.,
NEGRO GROUP.
Native African Family.	62	99	65	83	)
American-born Negroes.	12	89	73	82	(
Hottentot Family.	3	83	68	75
Alforian Family.	t 8	83	63	75
A-Ustv cblzcL'izs	j
In this table the measurements of children, idiots and raixed races
are omitted, excepting only in the instance of the Fellahs of Egypt,
who, however, are a blended stock of two Caucasian nations,—the
true Egyptian and the intrusive Arab, in which the characteristics of
the former greatly predominate.
No mean has been taken of the Caucasian race* collectively, because
of the very great preponderance of Hindu, Egyptian and Fellah skulls
over those of the Germanic, Pelasgic and Celtic families. Nor could
any just collective, comparison be instituted between the Caucasian and
Negro groups in such a table, unless the small-brained people of the
latter division (Hottentots, Bushmen and Australians) were proportion-
ate in number to the Hindoos, Egyptians and Fellahs of the other
group. Such a computation, were it practicable, would probably
reduce the Caucasian average to about 87 cubic inches, and the Negro
to 78 at most, perhaps even to 75, and thus confirmatively establish
the difference of at least nine cubic inches between the mean of the
two races.
* It is necessary to explain what is here meant by the word race. Further
researches into Ethnographic affinities will probably demonstrate that what
are now termed the five races of men, would be more appropriately called
groups ; that each of these groups is again divisible into a greater or smaller
number of primary races, each of which has expanded from an aboriginal
nucleus or centre. Thus I conceive that there were several centres for the
American group of races, of which the highest in the scale are the Toltecan
nations, the lowest the Fuegians. Nor does this view conflict with the
general principle, that all these nations and tribes have had, as I have else-
where expressed it, a common origin; inasmuch as by this term is only
meant an indigenous relation to the country they inhabit, and that collective
identity of physical traits, mental and moral endowments, language, &c.,
which characterize all the American races. The same remarks are appli-
cable to all the other human races; but in the present infant state of
Ethnographic science, the designation of these primitive centres is a task of
equal delicacy and difficulty. I may here observe, that whenever I have
ventured an opinion on this question, it has been in favor of the doctrine of
primeval diversities among men,—an original adaptation of the several races
to those varied circumstances of climate and locality, which, while congenial
to the one are destructive to the other; and subsequent investigations have
confirmed me in these views. See Crania Americana, p. 3 • Crania
JEgyptiaca, p. 37 ; Distinctive Characteristics of the Aboriginal Race of
America, p. 36; Silliman’s American Journal of Science and the Arts, 1847;
and my Letter to J. R. Bartlett, Esq. in Vol. 2 of the Transactions of the
Ethnological Society of New York.”
The wide-spread reputation of the author, and his habits of close
observation, entitle him to the fullest confidence on this subject,
and we are pleased to learn that he is engaged in a memoir which
will embrace detailed conclusions from the data collected by his
untiring zeal, and which we predict will still further extend his
fame as an Ethnologist.