contributors I may mention William A. Foster, Esq., as presenting
135 specimens, Dr. J. C. Cisneros 53, and Dr. Ruschenberger 39.
George R. Gliddon, Esq. presented 30, beside the 137 originally procured
by his agency ; William A. Gliddon, Esq., 19 ; M. Clot-Bey 15 ;
and Professor Retzius 17, with 24 more received since the death of
Dr. M. Over one hundred gentlemen are named in the catalogue as
contributing more or less, sixty-seven of them having presented one
skull each. It is not to be supposed, however, that even the portion
thus given led to no outlay of means. The mere charges for freight
from distant portions of the globe amounted to a considerable' sum.
Dr. Wood (loc. cit.) estimates the total cost of the collection to its
proprietor from ten to fifteen thousand dollars. At this moment it
is undoubtedly by far the most complete collection of crania extant.
There is nothing in Europe comparable to it. I have recently seen a
letter from an eminent British ethnologist, containing warm thanks
for the privilege even of reading the catalogue of such a collection,
and adding that he would visit it anywhere in Europe, although he
cannot dare the ocean for it. At the time of Dr. Morton’s death it
consisted of 918 human crania, to which are to be added 51 received
since, and which were then on their way. The collection also contains
278 crania of mammals, 271 of birds, and 88 of reptiles and
fishes :—in all, 1656 skulls ! I rejoice to state that this magnificent
cabinet has been secured to our city by the contribution of liberal
citizens, who have purchased it for $4,000, and presented it to the
Academy.;
Simultaneously with his accumulation of crania, and based upon
them, he carried on his study of Ethnology, if I may use that term
in reference to a period when the science, so called at present, could
scarcely be said to exist. Indeed it is almost entirely a new science
within a few years. While medical men occupied themselves exclusively
with the intimate structure and function of the human frame,
no investigator of nature seemed to turn his attention to the curious
diversities of form, feature, complexion, &c., which characterize the
different varieties of men. With a very thorough anatomy and physiology,
our descriptive history of the human species was less accurate
and extensive than that of most of the well-known animals. So true
was this that Buffon pithily observed that “ quelque intérêt que nous
ayons a nous connaître nous mêmes, je ne sais si nous ne connaissons
pas mieux tout ce qui n ’est pas nous.” But every branch of this
interesting investigation has recently received a sudden and vigorous
impulse, and there has grown up within a few years an Ethnology
with numerous and devoted cultivators. That it still has much to
accomplish will appear from the number of questions which the pages
of this book show to be still sub judice. Indeed it is the widest and
most attractive field open to the naturalist of to-day. To quote the
admirable language of Jomard:
1 Qar ne faut pas perdre de vue, maintenant que la connaissance extérieure du globe
et de . ses productions a fait d’immenses progrès, que la connaissance de l ’homme est le
but final des sciences géographiques. Une carrière non moins vaste que la première eBt
ouverte au génie- des voyages ; il importe, il est urgent même, pour l’avenir de l’espèce
humaine et pour le besoin de l’Europe surtout, de connaître à fond le degré de civilisation
de toutes les races; de savoir exactement en quoi elles diffèrent ou se rapprochent;
quelle est l’analogie ou la dissemblance entre leurs régimes, leurs moeurs, leurs religions,
leurs' langages, leurs arts, leurs- industries, leurs constitutions physiques, afin de lier entre
e]ieS et nous des rapports plus sûrs et plus avantageux. Tel est l’objet de l’ethnologie, ce
qui est la science même de la géographie vue dans son ensemble et dans toute sa haute
généralité. Bien que cette matière ainsi envisagée soit presque toute nouvelle, nous ne
pouvons trop, néanmoins, recommander les observations de cette espèce au zèle des
voyageurs.”*
The attempt to establish a rule of diversity among the races of
men, according to cranial conformation, commenced in the last century
with Camper, the originator of the facial angle. The subject
was next taken up by Blumenbach, who has been until recently the
controlling authority upon it. His Decades Oraniorum, whose publication
was begun in 1790, and continued until 1828, covers the period
when Morton began this study. His method of comparing-crania, (by
the norma verticalis,) and his distribution of races, were then both undisputed.
The mind of the medical profession in Great Britain and
in this country had then, moreover, been recently attracted to the
subject by the publication (in 1819) of the very able book of Mr. Lawrence,
f avowedly based upon the researches of the great Professor
of Gottingen. Dr. Prichard had published his Inaugural Dissertation,
De Horninum Varietatibus, in 1808, and a translation of the same in
1812, under, the title of Researches on the Physical Eistory of Man,
constituting the. first of a Series of publications, afterwards of great
influence and value. Several treatises had also been published with
the intention of provirfg that the color of the negro might arise from
climatic influences, the principal work being that of President Smith,
of Princeton College, Hew Jersey. Beyond this, nothing had been
done for the science of Man up to Morton’s return to this country in
1824. A new impetus had been given, however, to the speciality of
Craniology by the promulgation of the views of Gall and Spurzheim,
then creating their greatest excitement. These distinguished persons
completed the publication of their great work at Paris in 1819, both
* Etudes Géographiques et Historiques sur l’Arabie, p. 403.
■j* Lectures on Physiology, Zoology, and the Natural History of Man, delivered at the
Royal College of Surgeons, by W. Lawrence, F. R. S., &c.
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