not sufficiently strong to be readily recognized, and therefore, are of little value to the zoologist, and of no importance to mankind generally, who ever have, and ever must look to the exterior alone. Thus, Blumenbach was wrong, as I think, when he attached so much importance to the configuration of the human cranium, thus inducing many persons to suppose that a distinctness of species was only to be determined by constant specific differences in the form of that section of the skeleton. That such differences exist I believe; but even if they did not, this were no argument against the specific differences in the races of man, for it is to the external characters mainly that we must look for specific distinctions. Supposing the Jewish race to have become extinct, and no monumental or other artistic productions have recorded their physiognomy; who, from their osteological remains, could have described the race, or guessed at those physical and moral characteristics which distinguish them in so marked a manner from all other races?

The skeleton of the head, usually spoken of as the skull or cranium, encloses and protects the encephalon. It has relations externally with powerful muscles, and its inner table is in harmony with the external surface of the encephalon. The capacity of the cranium, properly so-called, may generally be assumed to be the measure of the encephalon, to which, however, even in mammals, there is one exception-certain cetacea. Besides providing cavities for the protection of certain organs of sense, it articulates with the vertebral column, of which it seems but the continuation. Goethe first used the expression "cranial vertebræ,"* and its correctness is now all but universally admitted. Between its tables we find osseous cavities, with prolongations into them of the mucous membranes of the nose and pharynx; the uses of these sinuses are absolutely unknown.† They are also wanting in the cetacea.

Now, when we look at the form of the skeleton of the head in the various races of men, it is easy to observe that they differ remarkably from each other, not so much in the capacity of the cranium, as in the shape or configuration of the skull and face, and in the relations of the face to the cranium, differences still more remarkable during

This expression was rather used first by Lorenz Oken, in 1806, who, speaking of a deer's skull which he had found in the forest, exclaimed "Es ist eine wirbelsaeule!" (it is a vertebral column.) Goethe's memoir, claiming the right to the discovery, after it had been successfully established in Europe, was not published till 1820, a fact which the recent publication of posthumously issued letters, of doubtful authenticity, does not overthrow. (ED. Authropo. Review.) + Dr. Knox always denied the generalization that the absence of the frontal sinus was a constant character of the Papuan race. (ED. Anthropo. Review.)

life. This difference in form was first observed by Hippocrates, and ascribed by him to artificial pressure of the head of the child, which practice being continued for some generations, the malformations, at last, became hereditary. But the artificially deformed feet of Chinese women have never become hereditary. So that the theory of Hippocrates seems, at least, extremely doubtful. Blumenbach himself doubted if these differences in the configuration of the human skull were constant; the candid Prichard denied that they were, and he has been followed lately by others-Williamson, Owen, etc. In respect of the capacity of the cranium, Dr. Tiedemann fancied that he had found in my own museum several crania of African Negroes quite as large and as finely proportioned as the highest of the white races. Out of the exceptions he established a law, and in this he has been followed by others. But if such variations in form were frequent and permanent, the race would in a century or two become entirely altered: now this, we know, never has happened. Such varieties extend only to a generation or two, and then cease, the primordial forms returning-those forms, namely, which are in unison with nature's great scheme and with the existing order of things. Not that there is or can be any selection, as Mr. Darwin expresses it, Nature is not an intelligent being, and, therefore, there can be no selection, properly speaking. Again, if varieties in any one race were numerous and frequently occurring, this circumstance surely ought to have told upon races favourably situated in other respects; yet, in so far as I can perceive, in examin ing the monumental records of Egypt, the Copt and Negro have remained unaltered for at least six thousand years. The same law seems to hold good with other races so long as they do not abandon their aboriginal land. When this happens, they perish.

The exceptions so much dwelt on by Prichard, Williamson, Owen, and others, have been greatly exaggerated. They have no influence over the exterior, and probably none over the intellectual qualities of the race; whilst against the hereditary extension of these varieties stands the physiological law of non-vitality and extinction. Many years ago I remarked that varieties in the distribution of the arteries, implying other varieties in structure, were much more common in the very young than in the adult, implying, as I thought, a want of vitality or of viability in these individuals. Thus, nature checks the extension of all important varieties in structure, the individuals being either non-viable or non-productive. This accidental approximation of the individuals of any race to another seems wholly to be without any real results, otherwise hybrids, amongst such, might be fertile.

Now, as I asserted long ago, they never are; and, lately, M. Boudin placed before the scientific bodies of France incontestable proofs of the correctness of my views on this point.

A conformation of the osteological head distinct from all other races characterizes the Australian and Tasmanian, the Esquimaux, the Bosjesman, the Kaffir, the Negro, the pure Mongol, the Carib, the Peruvian all these races have race characters more or less marked, and not to be observed in other races. That these races may be converted by education into white men is, I fear, an entire delusion.

The situation of the foramen magnum of the occipital bone* is still a matter of dispute. Dr. Prichard thought it to be "the same in the Negro as in the European;" and so it may be, if no allowance be made for the face. The situation of the foramen magnum of the occipital bone is not the same in the Negro as in the European. Dr. Prichard says it is exactly behind the transverse lines, bisecting the antero-posterior diameter of the base of the cranium. Supposing this measurement to be correct, which it is not, it has nothing to do with the pose or position of the head upon the vertebral column, which, all must know, depends on the position of the condyles of the occipital bone. A line bisecting the antero-posterior diameter of the skull, and dividing into two equal parts, passes in the European head through the centre of the condyles of the occipital bone; and the same measurement applies nearly to the antero-posterior diameter of the entire head. Not so in the coloured races. In speaking of the base of the cranium, I am not quite sure to which Prichard and his followers allude; for very generally in anatomical works the base of the skull, including the upper jaw, is confounded with the true base of the skull.

Now, as regards other measurements. The diameter of the cranium, measured with callipers, between the fronto-parietal sutures and midway between the vertex and the base of the skull, will be found, on an average, to be less by nearly an inch in the dark races than it is in the European. This seems to me an extraordinary difference in the capacity of that portion of the brain which all fancy to be the region of the higher intellectual qualities-of calculation, of comparison, and of reflection.

It is admitted by Mr. Williamson, that in the German the frontal diameter was five inches; in the French, Spanish, and English, 4-5;

"Dis

See for accurate information on this subject, Crull's excellent work, sertatio anthropologico-medica, de Cranio, ejusque ad faciem ratione", 8vo, Grö. ningen, 1810. The angle of the occipital foramen to that of the line formed by the basioccipital bone, is the one which we are in the habit of using. (ED. Anthropo. Review.)

in the dark races as low as 3.6 and 3.7. This is all I contend for. The measurements of the occipito-frontal arch, inter-mastoid, etc., are of no value. The length of the head and face (skeleton of the head) is a true natural motory character, and strongly characterizes the fair from the dark races; but the mingling up the two segments of the head leads to confusion and to erroneous inferences. The cranium being divided into two parts by a line (which I presume was perpendicular) drawn from the anterior edge of the foramen magnum occipitale to the centre of ossification of the parietal bones, so as to divide the interior into two chambers, an anterior and a posterior, the respective capacities of these chambers were next ascertained. results gave

The

The numbers speak for themselves.

The remark, that in some crania the ring of the sphenoid does not reach the parietal on one side, was first made by me. I do not attach much importance to it, excepting as tending to illustrate the history of retrogressive development.

Mr. Williamson remarks "that the position of the foramen magnum occipitale was found to be exactly behind the transverse lines bisecting the antero-posterior diameter of the base of the cranium, which is the position in European skulls. The situation of the foramen magnum is, therefore, the same in Negro as in European skulls."Page 24.

But these measurements, admitting them to be correct, which they are not, do not touch the real question at issue, which is the position of the Negro head on the vertebral column, as compared with that of the European. Had the measurements been made through the centres of the condyles of the occipital bone, the results would have been very different.

In a report on a collection of skulls of various tribes of men inhabiting Nepâl, collected and presented to the British Museum by Mr. Hodgson, late resident in Nepâl, Mr. Owen expresses an opinion "that it is only with regard to the Australian and Tasmanian aborigines that he could feel any confidence in detecting the distinctive characters of a race; that, in fact, Negro-shaped skulls occur amongst

all races; that the white races have no advantage in this respect over the dark-coloured races."

Now, German and Russian travellers have made similar remarks in respect of the inhabitants of the Caucasus; and I was informed by my esteemed friend, Dr. John Sutherland (of the War Office), that whilst travelling in the Tyrol he found numerous specimens of those models of beauty whose portraits have been placed on canvass by the early Italian painters-women with beautiful oval Greek face and head, combined with fair hair and blue eyes-figures, in short, not to be seen in any Italian race. In troublesome times, nations and races, out of which nations are formed, flee to the mountains, where their descendants long find protection. The country of Nepâl describes in some respects the regions to which I have alluded.

Nepal is in a long and narrow tract of land, bounded to the north by the great mountain-wall of the Himalayas, separating it from Thibet; to the south, extending into the plains, bounded there by Delhi, Oude, Bengal, etc., and extending to the Chinese frontier. Situated between 27° and 31° north latitude, it is extremely varied in climate, and presents numerous narrow valleys of great altitude. It has been long known that the numerous valleys are inhabited by a variety of mixed races, which cannot be traced to their origin. The aborigines were probably Tartars or Chinese; they were invaded by the Hindoos about, probably, the fourteenth century; then came the Mohammedan sovereigns of Delhi; the inhabitants fled to the mountains.

All this has been carefully described by Dr. Latham in his admirable work on Descriptive Ethnology. A small population thus tossed between two, or rather three, overpowering foreign empires, cannot be expected to show the characteristic forms of a purely primitive aboriginal race. In addition to these circumstances connected with Hindoo, Mongol, Chinese, and Arab conquests, must also be taken into account the peculiar social habits of the Nairshabits the reverse of those of the western world, and of all other races known to me.