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Show 210 TilE CRANIAL CIIARACTERISTICS cleecl such an attempt in the pr sent state of our knowledge, would b p;·ematut·e, and tl~erefore liable to the. error~ i?separablo from hasty examinations. Some of these quostwns, It IB true,. have all' n-<ly be n answel'ed; some are being solved even now; while others, snclt as tho law of div rgont fonns, arc professedly among the most obscnl'O problems in the wbolo range of scientific inquiry. Noverth?less, I call the attention of the reader to a brief and gonontl analysis of some of tho most prominent of 'these subjects, as tho best method of r;howing tho impot'tance of this newest of the sciences, i.ts nat~re and power, the methods of procedure adopted, and tho results wh10h may reasonably be xpectecl to flow from its .cultivati?n .. And .r do this designedly, for I have been actuated, m contl'lbutmg this paper to a popular scienti fie work, with the desire of presenting a novel, and with mo, favorite study, in its proper light before tho people, hoping thereby to arrest the progress of certain ill-founded suspicions, which, in some quarters, have sprung up as tho result of a fear that the inquiry was detrimental, instead of advantageous, to the best interests of man. Cranioscor y is a new science. Dating from tho time of BLUMENllACll, with whom it fairly begins, it is scarcely 70 years old; and its cultivators, even at the present moment, number but a few names. lndecd, so little attention has been paid, in general, to the Natural History of Man, that we find LAWRENCE, so late as the summer of 1818, expressing himself in the following words :10 "Accurate, beautiful, and expensive engravings have been executed of most objects in natnral history, of insecta, birds, plants: splendid and costly publications have been devoted to small and app rently insignificant depttrtmcnts of this science; yet tho different races of man have hm·dly, in any i nstancc, been attentively investigated, described, or compared tog thor: no one has approximated and smvoyed in conjunction their structure aud powers : no attempt has been made to delineate them, I will not say on a large and comprehensive, but not even on a srnall and contracted scale; nobody has ever thought it worth while to bestow on a faithful delineation of the several varieties of man one-tenth of the labor and expense which have been lavi shed again and again on birds of paradise, pigeons, parrots, humming-birds, beetles, spiucrs, and many other such objects. Even intelligent and scientific travellers have too often thrown away on <lt·esH, arms, orna. m nts, utensils, buildings, landscapes, and obscure antiquities, the utmost luxury of engraving and cmbcllishm.ont, neglecting cutircly . the being, without reference to whom, none of these objects possess eith 1' value or interest. In many very expensive works, one is dis- 10 Op. cit., p. 84. OF THE RACES OF MEN. 211 appointed at meeting, in long succession, with prints of costumessummer dresses and winter dresses, court and common dresses-the wearer, in the meantime, being entirely lost sight of. The immortal historian of nature seems to have allud d to this strange n glcct in ob. erving, 'quclqu' intcrst que nons ayons a nous connattro nous memes, jc no sais si nous no eonnaissons pas micux tout co qui n'cst pas nous.'u Indeed, wl10thor we investigate tho pl1ysical or tho moral natmc of man, we recognize at every step the limited extent of our knowledge, and arc obliged to confess that ignorance which a Rousseau and a Buflon have not been ashamed to avow."-" The most useful, and the least successfully cultivated of all knowledge, is that of man; and the description on tl10 temple of Delphi (rvwG• o'&cxu<rov) contained a more important and difficult precept than all the books of the moralists." 12 Twelve years after tltis was written, we behold Dr. MoRTON compelled to conclude a lecture upon " 13te dijJe1·ent Form8 of tlte Slcull a8 exhibited in tltc Five Race8 of Men," without being able to present to his audience either a Mongolian or a Malay skull. 13 Our surprise at this will be somcwl1at lessened, however, when we call to mind tho fact that, at this time, tho celebrated Rlnmcnbachian collection contained but 65 skulls. And now, in 1856, we are again reminded, by a British cthnograp110r, of the difficulti s which beset the study of cran ioscopical science. "It is truly surprising," says DAVIS, "how great the dcstntcLion of human crania, all-important for Olli' design, has been, and how rapidly all such genuine remains of tho llri Lons, Romans, and Anglo-Saxons arc now escaping from the graf:!p of science. The progressive enclosure of our wild tracts, the extension of cultivation, and tho introduction of a more perfect agriculture, have in modern times destToyed multitudes of the oldest sepulchres, and all that they contained. And it is unfortunate that tho researches of antiquaries, who have opened barrows and excavat d cemeteries with inquiring eyes, have been almost equally fatal to the cranial remains of tltci t' occupants. Arms, personal ornaments, and other relics deposited with the cl ad, have generally cngl'osscd attention, to the oxclu ion of tho tender and fragile bones of their possessors. "14 Notwithstanding these obstacles, 11 Buffon, "De lo. No.tu•·e do l'Jiomme," Histoire No.torollo 06n6mle ot J)o.rticulilire. Po.ris, 1740, 1'. 2, p. 429. 12 Discours sur 1'Inego.lit6; Preface . 13 Letter to J. It. Bo.rtlott, Esq., 'l'ro.nso.ctions of the A.mcrioo.n Ethnologico.l Society, Vol. ii., New York, 1848, p. 217. u Crnnio. Brito.rmioo.. Dclinoo.tions o.nd Descriptions of tho Skulls of the Eo.rly Inhn.bito.nta of tho British Islo.ncls; together with Notices of thoir other Rcmo.ius. By J. B!~rno.rd D!Lvis, M.lt. C. S., F. S. A., etc., o.nd John 'l'hurnr~m, M.D., F. S. A., &c. London, 1856, Dcoo.de I., p. 2. Judging from the first dcco.dc, this o.dmimblo work promises, when completed, to |
