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Show 224 TIIE CRANIAL CJIARACTERISTICS origi.n, is at once illogical and unwarrantable. Resemblances in physical conformation and in intellectual capacity, manners, and customs, growing out of, and uopondcnt in great measure upon such conformation, arc indications rather of a similarity of position in t] Ic gr at uatu 1·al scale of tho ]Juman fami ly, than of id ntity of or1g1n . 'l'o establish identity, proof of anothol' kind is rcquil'ed. T l H~t positive icl 'ntity of cranial form, structure and gontilitial charactOI'S is tho b st evidence of identity of origin, or, at n,ll events, of v ry closer lationship, thoro can be no doubt. But identity must not h infcrr d fl'om striking similarity. Tho confu ion oftm·ms has Jod to mn •h error. imilarity i.n the foatnr s above alluded to, indicates m I' ly an allied natural po ition, and nothing moro. This distinction is as important in cranioscopy as that made by the comparative u.m1.tomist between tho nnalogios and homoloO'ies of the sl,clcton. Som body has said that "when history is sil nt, langua.o-o is evidence." The cranioscopist knows that oftentimes, when boLh history and langLlago are silent, cranial forms become ovid nco. For the cranial similarities and diilcronccs above mentioned may be estimated with mathematical accLlracy and precision, by weight, m asurcmcnt, & . Hen o, while tho lano-nao-o of au antc-bistoric people may be lo. t, tho discovery of thei.r skulls will afford LlS tho means of determining their ran1 or position in the human scale, &c. From considerations of this natul'o, we arc led tor ·oo-nisc the xistcuce of a CI'aniological school in l£thnology, a craniolo.o-ical pL'in iple of classification and rcscar h, anu a ranioloo·ical test of afHnity or diversity. .According to PRICilARD, Ethnology is, equally with Geology, a bmnch of Pal• ontology. "Gcoloo-y," says ho, "is the archroology of the glob ,-l~thnology that of its human inhabitants." 63 LATHAM, comnHmtino- upon this sontoncc, very appropriately ob crvcs, that "when Ji~thno l ogy loses its pulroontological chal'acter, it loses half its scientific clement . "M ]"")rom this w loam the importance of osteology, especial l.y the cranial dcpm·tmcnt, since it constitutes one of the surest and ftcn tho only guide in idouti(ying ancient populations. Dr: LA'!.' HAM, tl1e well-! nown I hi lologil:lt, lays gr at stress upon tho cthnol~ gi eal value of lano-ua$'e,. which he speaks of as "yielding in do:fim~ ud ~o no ch:ractcnsLJC what ver." .. . . "Whatever may be smd agamst certam over-statements as to constancy, it is an undoubted fh?t,. tl~~! id ntity of language is prinu1 facie evidence of identity of or1gm. Among tho apo1 hthegms appended to his work on the Varicti a of Man, tho same opinion occurs.-" In tho way of physical ~ A nni verso.? A~dres~, doli vorcd before the Etbnologico.l Society of London, in ] 84 7. 64 Mnn nnd lns M1gratlona, Amer. Edit. New York, 1862, p. 41. [!& ibid, p. 35. OF TIIE RACES OF llfEN. 225 charn.c~cristics, common conditions dcvo.lop common points of conformatiOn. ll once, as clements of classification, physical characters arc of less value than the philoloo-ical moral ones."oo There arc reasons for dissenting from the opinion of this eminent philologist. Wh n we contemplate the mutability and destructibility oflano-uao-cs as abunuantly excmplilied in the ol>litcmtion of the Etruscanbdialcc~ ~y th? Roman-La~in; the Ccltiberinn and 'l'urdctan by tho Latin and Br arnsh; the Synac by Araujo; Ucltic by the Latin and ]Trench· tho Celtic of Britain by the Saxon and English; the Pclhevi and Zcnd l>y the Pct'sian, and the Mauritanian by Arabic; 67 when we reflect how the Epirotcs and iculi changed their language, without conque t or colonization, into Greek, and how the ancient Pelaso-i all tl~c prim~tivc inbal~itants of the Peloponnossus, and many of ~hose of AL'~adta and AiLICa, abandoned their own language and adopted that o! th c Hell n cs ; 1)8 when we beho lu tho N cgt·ocs of St. Domin go ApcaJnng tho Frcn ·h tongue, tho Basllldrs, of :B'.innish orio-in speak-l. l lg ']' m· k'J S h ; ·'' 9 an d w] wn", :finally, as one instance of anb oth' er and significaut class of facts, we call to mind how the Carelians, in cons qu nee of certain linguistic anaJoo-ics, havo boon cla. sed witl1 the Ji'inns, th?ugh d sccndcd f1·om an cutir ly different race, who, at an early penocl, overran the region about Lako I,acloo-a oo- we al'o "diRpo · d to believe with Humboldt"- I am usi11; ~he words of Morton-" that wo shall never be able to trace the affiliation of nation.s by a mere comparison of languages; for tltis, after all, is but one ot many clews by wl1ich that g~:cat problem is to be solved." ot Surely anatomy and ].Jl1ysiology-thoso handmaius of tho zoologist -ar ~oro powc1·~ul, and, in th~ very nature of things, better auapt d to settle tho question of the umty of man, to determine whether the huma~ !hmily is com?o~cd of several spc ios, or of but ono species compt1s1ng many val'lCLlCS. Surely the human skeleton is more enduring a~1d less mutable tban the oldest language. Instau ·cs are not want1~1g,. as we ~av? soon above, of a nation forgetting its own language m Its admu·atwn for the more perfect speech of another people. But, as far as I am aware, not a solitary inRtancc can be ndduced of a nation, genealogically pw·e, entirely changi1w its physical cham, ·tors for tl1osc of aJiothcr. Lot us conclude thon, with ]3odichon, th~t Pl1y iology is superior to Philology as an instrument of ~tl~nolog1Cal1· arch.-" To thr~w light upon the question of orio-ins, It 1s necessary to n.ppcal to a science more precise, and founded on 116 Vt\rictics of Mnn, p. 602. 67 Jiumilton Smith, op. cit., p. 178. 68 Niebuhr, Hist. of Romo, l, 37. 60 lTclworzon, Annuniro des Mine. do Russie, 1840, p. 84. co llunrtmnn, 1'rnnsnctions of tho Royal Society of Stockholm for 1847 Gl Cmni1\ Americana, p. 18. ' . 15 |