of anthropology, since Dr. Morton formed the collection which now, with
many later additions, constitutes an important department in the
collections of the Academy of Science of Philadelphia. Zealous and
well-trained labourers are following in his steps; but the value of his
services to science are more fully appreciated with every addition to
the work he inaugurated. Researches have been prosecuted for some years
by a committee of the British Association with a view to securing
reliable data relative to the tribes of the Canadian North-West and
British Columbia. In following out their instructions, Dr. Franz Boas
has prepared valuable tables of measurements, both of living examples of
the Haidah, Tsimshian, Kwakintl, and Nootka tribes, and of crania of
those and other natives of the Pacific coast; but unfortunately he has
omitted the cerebral capacity. But a large collection of crania of
tribes lying to the south of British Columbia, now in the Peabody Museum
of Harvard University, has furnished to Mr. Lucien Carr opportunities
for a series of careful measurements showing some very distinctive
diversities among tribes of the coast and the islands of Southern
California. From those the following table is derived. The capacity is
given in cubic centimetres; and shows not only a marked diversity in
cerebral capacity distinguishing different island tribes, but also notes
the relative difference of the male and female head. Among the Indians
of the Pacific coast are the Haidahs and others noted for exceptional
ingenuity and skill in their carvings, pottery, and other handiwork. But
besides the fair-skinned Haidahs and Tsimshians of the north, there are
essentially diverse tribes of Southern California, noticeable for
swarthy and almost black colour; and not only inferior, but essentially
differing in the style of their arts.
TABLE VIII
CRANIA OF PACIFIC COAST TRIBES
_Santa Catalina Island, California._
───────────────┬──────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────
│ │ │ │
No. of Crania. │ Sex. │ Capacity │ Capacity │ Capacity
│ │ Average. │ Maximum. │ Minimum.
│ │ │ │
───────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────
│ │ │ │
26 │ Male │ 1470 │ 1719 │ 1282
12 │ Female │ 1279 │ 1451 │ 1098
│ │ │ │
───────────────┴──────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────
_San Clementé Island, California._
───────────────┬──────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────
│ │ │ │
No. of Crania. │ Sex. │ Capacity │ Capacity │ Capacity
│ │ Average. │ Maximum. │ Minimum.
│ │ │ │
───────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────
│ │ │ │
9 │ Male │ 1452 │ 1747 │ 1300
6 │ Female │ 1315 │ 1352 │ 1268
│ │ │ │
───────────────┴──────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────
_Santa Cruz Island, California._
───────────────┬──────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────
│ │ │ │
No. of Crania. │ Sex. │ Capacity │ Capacity │ Capacity
│ │ Average. │ Maximum. │ Minimum.
│ │ │ │
───────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────
│ │ │ │
45 │ Male │ 1365 │ 1625 │ 1144
35 │ Female │ 1219 │ 1528 │ 1040
│ │ │ │
───────────────┴──────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────
_Santa Barbara Islands and Mainland._
───────────────┬──────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────
│ │ │ │
No. of Crania. │ Sex. │ Capacity │ Capacity │ Capacity
│ │ Average. │ Maximum. │ Minimum.
│ │ │ │
───────────────┼──────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────
│ │ │ │
9 │ Male │ 1324 │ 1441 │ 1167
5 │ Female │ 1247 │ 1316 │ 1175
│ │ │ │
───────────────┴──────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────
Among exceptional features claimed as more or less a racial
characteristic of American crania, the _os Incæ_, or epactal bone in the
occiput, has been noted as present in various stages of manifestation in
3.81 per cent; and among ancient Peruvian crania in 6.08 per cent; while
it does not apparently exceed 2.65 per cent in the Negro; and only
reaches 1.19 per cent in Europeans.[181] In so far as this may be
regarded as a sign of arrested development, it is noteworthy as thus
occurring in excess in the small-headed, yet highly ingenious and
civilised Peruvian race. Dr. Morton noted as a remarkable fact that the
skull of the Peruvian child appeared to equal in size that of other
races; so that in a much ampler sense than in the perpetuation of a
suture of the occiput beyond the stage of fœtal development, the
small-sized skull and brain of the adult Peruvian is abnormal. But he
followed out his observation of the phenomena no farther than to state,
in summing up his investigations “On the internal capacity of the
cranium in the different races of men:”[182] “Respecting the American
race, I have nothing to add, excepting the striking fact that of all the
American nations, the Peruvians had the smallest heads, while those of
the Mexicans were something larger, and those of the barbarous tribes
the largest of all,” namely:—
{ Peruvians, collectively 75 cubic inches.
Toltecan Nations {
{ Mexicans, „ 79 „ „
Barbarous Tribes 82 „ „
The enlarged tables given in the catalogue of Dr J. Aitken Meigs,
increase this inverse ratio of cerebral capacity, thus:—
Peruvians 75.3
Mexicans 81.7
Barbarous Tribes 84.0
“The great American group,” he says, “is, in several respects, well
represented in the collection. It includes 490 crania and 13 casts,
making a total of 503 from nearly 70 different nations and tribes. Of
this large number 256 belong to the Toltecan race (embracing the
semi-civilised communities of Mexico, Bogota, and Peru), and 247 to the
barbarous tribes scattered over the continent. Of 164 measurements of
crania of the barbarous tribes, the largest is 104 cubic inches; the
smallest 69; and the mean of all 84. One hundred and fifty-two Peruvian
skulls give 101 cubic inches for the largest internal capacity, 58 for
the smallest, and 75.3 for the average of all.”[183]
The results which Professor Jeffreys Wyman arrived at from a careful
comparative measurement of the Squier collection, were confirmed by his
subsequent study of that of Professor Agassiz, and may be quoted as
applying to both; for he sums up his later investigations with the
remark: “These results agree with all previous conclusions with regard
to the diminutive size of the ancient Peruvian brain.”[184] Of the
Squier collection he says: “The average capacity of the fifty-six crania
measured agrees very closely with that indicated by Morton and Meigs,
namely, 1230 centimetres, or 75 cubic inches, which is considerably less
than that of the barbarous tribes of America, and almost exactly that of
the Australians and Hottentots as given by Morton and Meigs, and smaller
than that derived from a larger number of measurements by Davis. Thus we
have, in this particular, a race which has established a complex civil
and religious polity, and made great progress in the useful and fine
arts,—as its pottery, textile fabrics, wrought metals, highways and
aqueducts, colossal architectural structures and court of almost
imperial splendour prove,—on the same level, as regards the quantity of
brain, with a race whose social and religious conditions are among the
most degraded exhibited by the human race. All this goes to show, and
cannot be too much insisted upon, that the relative capacity of the
skull is to be considered merely as an anatomical and not as a
physiological characteristic; and unless the quality of the brain can be
represented at the same time as the quantity, brain measurement cannot
be assumed as an indication of the intellectual position of races any
more than of individuals.”[185]
The only definite attempt of Dr. Morton to solve the difficulty thus
presented to us, curiously evades its true point. “Something,” he says,
“may be attributed to a primitive difference of stock; but more,
perhaps, to the contrasted activity of the two races.” Here, however, it
is not a case of intellectual activity accompanied by, and seemingly
begetting an increased volume of brain; but only the assumption of
greater activity in the small-brained race to account for its triumph
over larger-brained barbarous tribes in the attainment of numerous
elements of a native-born civilisation. The question is, how to account
for this intellectual activity, with all its marvellous results,
attained by a race with an average brain of no greater volume than that
of the Bushman, the Australian, or other lowest types of humanity.
The Nilotic Egyptian race, of composite ethnical character, presents
striking elements of comparison, in the ingenious arts and constructive
skill of the ancient dwellers in the Nile valley; but whether we take
the Egyptian of the Catacombs, the Copt, or the Fellah, we seek in vain
for like microcephalous characteristics. Among modern races the Chinese
exhibit many analogies in arts and social life to the ancient Peruvians;
but their cerebral capacity presents no correspondence to that of the
American race. Dr. Morton gives a mean capacity for the Chinese skull of
85, as compared with the Peruvian 75.3, while Dr. Davis derives from
nineteen skulls a mean internal capacity of 76.7 oz. av., or 93 cubic
inches.
But another Asiatic race, that of the Hindoos—also associated with a
remarkable ancient civilisation, and a social and religious organisation
not without suggestive analogies both to ancient Egypt and Peru,—is
noticeable for like microcephalous characteristics. In completing the
anatomical measurements with which Dr. Morton closes his great work, he
places the Ethiopian lowest in the scale of internal capacity of
cranium; but, while including the Hindoo in his Caucasian group, he
adds: “It is proper to mention that but three Hindoos are admitted in
the whole number, because the skulls of these people are probably
smaller than those of any other existing nation. For example, seventeen
Hindoo heads give a mean of but 75 cubic inches.”[186] The Vedahs of
Ceylon, the Mincopies, the Negritos, and the Bushmen, appear to vie with
the Hindoos in smallness of skull; but all of them are races of
diminutive stature. This element, therefore, which has been referred to
as important in individual comparisons, is no less necessary to be borne
in view in determining such comparative results as those which
distinguish the Peruvians from other American races. Certain races are
unquestionably distinguished from others by difference of stature.
Barrow determined the mean height of the Bushman, from measurements of a
whole tribe, to be 4 ft. 3½ in. D’Orbigny, from nearly similar evidence,
states that of the Patagonians to be 5 ft. 8 in. The internal capacity
of the Peruvian skull, as derived from eighteen male and six female
Quichua skulls in Dr. Davis’s collection, is 70, while he states that of
the Patagonian skull as 67 and of the Bushman as 65; but it is manifest
that the latter figures, if taken without reference to relative stature,
furnish a very partial index of the comparative volume of brain.
Professor Goodsir, as already noted, held that symmetry of brain has
more to do with the higher faculties than mere bulk. In the case of the
Peruvians the systematic distortion of the skull precludes the
application of this test. But in the small Hindoo skull the fine
proportions have been repeatedly noted. Dr. Davis, in describing one of
a Hindoo of unmixed blood, born in Sumatra, says: “His pretty,
diminutive skull is singularly contrasted with those of the races by
whom, alive, he was surrounded”;[187] and he adds: “The great agreement
of the elegant skulls of Hindoos in their types and proportions,
although not in dimensions, with those of European races, has afforded
some support to that widespread and learned illusion, ‘the Indo-European
hypothesis.’ The Hindoo skulls are generally beautiful models of form in
miniature.”
Mr. Alfred R. Wallace, in his _Malay Archipelago_, discusses the value
of cranial measurements for ethnological purposes; and, employing those
furnished by Dr. J. B. Davis in his _Thesaurus Craniorum_ as a “means of
determining whether the forms and dimensions of the crania of the
eastern races would in any way support or refute his classification of
them,” he finally selected as the best tests for his purpose—1. The
capacity of the cranium; 2. The proportion of the width to the length
taken as 100; 3. The proportion of the height to the length taken as
100. But here again, unfortunately, the systematic distortion of the
Peruvian skull limits us to the first of those tests. There are, indeed,
the eleven normal Peruvian crania selected as such from the numerous
Ancon skulls brought by Professor Agassiz from Peru. But those are
stated by Professor Wyman to be on an average less by six inches than
the ordinary skull. Some partial results embodied in the following table
admit of comparison with those based on the more ample data of Table X.
Dr. Lucae, in his _Zur Organischen Formenlehre_, gives the cranial
capacity of single skulls of different races, selected as examples of
each. In these, as in others already referred to, the capacity was
determined with peas; and the results—assumed to be given in Prussian
ounces,—are dealt with here, as in the skulls of Heinse and Bünger. The
experiments carried on for the purpose of testing the process fully
confirmed the results stated by Professor Wyman as to the differences in
apparent cubical capacity according to the material employed. Taking a
sound Huron Indian skull, a mean internal capacity of 1490 grms. was
obtained by repeatedly gauging it with peas, and of 1439.5 with rice.
The position of the Negro, heading the list, serves to show the
exceptional nature of the evidence; though this is rather due to the
inferiority of other examples, such as the Chinese and Greenlander, than
to its capacity greatly exceeding the Negro mean. In the first column
the unzen, as Prussian ounces, are rendered in grammes. The second
column gives the nearer approximation to the true specific gravity,
according to the standard referred to, based on a series of experiments
carried out under my direction in the laboratory of the University of
Toronto, and assuming 82.5 grms. of peas to occupy the space of 100
grms. of water. The third and fourth columns represent the estimated
brain-weight, after the requisite deductions, on the basis of s.g. of
brain as 1.0408.
TABLE IX
LUCAE
───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬──────────
│ │ │ │
│ Internal │ Internal Cap. │ Brain-Weight. │ Brain-
│ Capacity. │ Corrected. │ Grms. │ weight.
│ Grms. │ Grms. │ │ Oz. Av.
│ │ │ │
───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼──────────
│ │ │ │
Negro │ 1169.28 │ 1424.12 │ 1281.71 │ 45.2
Chinese │ 1081.58 │ 1364.48 │ 1228.04 │ 43.4
Nubian │ 1041.24 │ 1313.54 │ 1182.19 │ 41.7
Floris │ 1033.93 │ 1304.38 │ 1173.94 │ 41.4
Papuan │ 1030.42 │ 1299.95 │ 1169.96 │ 41.3
Greenlander │ 1023.12 │ 1290.74 │ 1161.67 │ 41.0
Javanese │ 995.06 │ 1254.54 │ 1129.91 │ 39.8
│ │ │ │
───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴──────────
In the following table the examples are derived from Dr. J. B. Davis’s
tables, with the exception of the Peruvians. For these I have availed
myself of Dr. Jeffreys Wyman’s careful observations on the large
collection in the Peabody Museum, the results of which confirm Dr.
Morton’s earlier data. One further fact, however, may be noted as a
result of my own study of Peruvian crania, amply confirmed by the
published observations of others, namely, that while the Peruvian head
unquestionably ranks among those of the microcephalous races, the range
of variation among the Peruvian coast tribes appears to be less than
that even of the Australian. Of this there is good evidence, based on
the comparison of several hundred crania. But exceptional examples of
unusually large skulls may be looked for in all races; and a few of such
abnormal Peruvian or other skulls would modify the mean capacities and
weights in the following table. Nevertheless the average results, as a
whole, are probably a close approximation to the truth:—
TABLE X
COMPARATIVE CEREBRAL CAPACITY OF RACES
────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────
│ │ │
│ │ Capacity. │ Brain-Weight.
Race. │ Number. │ Cubic Inches. │ Oz. Av.
│ │ │
────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────
│ │ │
European │ 299 │ 92.3 │ 47.12
English │ 21 │ 93.1 │ 47.50
Asiatic │ 124 │ 87.1 │ 44.44
Chinese │ 25 │ 92.1 │ 47.00
Hindoos │ 35 │ 82.5 │ 42.11
Negroes │ 16 │ 86.4 │ 44.08
Negro Tribes │ 69 │ 85.2 │ 43.47
American Indians │ 52 │ 87.5 │ 44.64
Mexicans │ 25 │ 81.7 │ 41.74
Peruvians │ 56 │ 75.0 │ 38.25
Eskimos │ 13 │ 91.2 │ 46.56
Oceanic │ 210 │ 89.4 │ 45.63
Javans │ 30 │ 87.5 │ 44.64
Australians │ 24 │ 81.1 │ 41.38
│ │ │
────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────
Looking for some definite results from the various data here produced,
the deductions which they seem to suggest may be thus stated. While
Professor Wyman justly remarks that the relative capacity of the skull,
and consequently of the encephalon, is to be considered as an anatomical
and not as a physiological characteristic, relative largeness of the
brain is nevertheless one of the most distinguishing attributes of man.
Ample cerebral development is the general accompaniment of intellectual
capacity, alike in individuals and races; and microcephaly, when it
passes below well-defined limits, is no longer compatible with rational
intelligence; though it amply suffices for the requirements of the
highest anthropomorpha. Wagner thus definitely refers the special
characteristics which separate man from the irrational creation to one
member of the encephalon: “The relation of the lobes of the cerebrum to
intelligence may, perhaps, be expressed thus: there is a certain
development of the mass of the cerebrum, especially of the convolutions,
requisite in order to such a development of intelligence as divides man
from other animals.”
The important data accumulated by Morton, Meigs, Davis, Tiedemann,
Pruner-Bey, Broca, and others, by the process of gauging the skulls of
different races, proceeds on the assumption of brain of a uniform
density. But it seems by no means improbable that certain marked
distinctions in races may be traceable to the very fact of a prevailing
difference in the specific gravity of the brain, or of certain of its
constituent portions; to the greater or less complexity of its
convolutions; and to the relative characteristics of the two
hemispheres. Moreover, it may be that some of those sources of
difference in races may not lie wholly out of our reach, or even beyond
our control. The diversity of food, for example, of the Peruvians and of
the American Indian hunter tribes was little less than that which
distinguishes the Eskimo from the Hindoo, or the nomad Tartar from the
Chinese. The remarkable cerebral capacity characteristic of the Oceanic
races is the accompaniment of well-defined peculiarities in food,
climate, and other physical conditions; and Australia is even more
distinct in its physical specialties than in its variety of race.
Looking then to the unwonted persistency of the Peruvian cranium within
such narrow limits, so far at least as the physical characteristics of
the predominant population of Peru are illustrated by means of the great
Coast cemeteries; and to the striking discrepancy between the volume of
brain and the intellectual activity of the race; I am led to the
conclusion that, in the remarkable exceptional characteristics thus
established by the study of this class of Peruvian crania, we have as
marked an indication of a distinctive race-character as anything
hitherto noted in anthropology.
-----
[152] _The Descent of Man_, Part I. chap. iv.
[153] _Insanity and its Treatment_, by G. F. Blandford, M.D., p. 10.
[154] _Mr. Darwin’s Critics: Critiques and Addresses._
[155] Vogt, _Lectures on Man_, Lecture III.
[156] _Journal of Mental Science_, vol. xii. p. 23.
[157] _Philosophical Transactions_, vol. clviii. p. 505.
[158] _Proceedings of the Boston Natural History Society_, vol. xl.
[159] The internal capacity of 59 oz. is given here from the _Thesaurus
Craniorum_, p. 40, in correction of that of 50 oz. stated in the memoir
in _Transactions of the Dutch Society of Sciences_, Haarlem, p. 21,
which may be presumed to be a misprint. Dr. Davis adds, in the
_Thesaurus Craniorum_: “An early closure of the sutures has occasioned a
stunted growth of the brain, especially of its convolutions, and thus
prevented the development of those structures and faculties which might
have given a different direction to his lower propensities”; and he
justly adds his conviction that this was a case rather for timely
treatment as a dangerous idiot, than for punishment as a criminal.
[160] _Report of British Association_, 1861.
[161] _Journal Anthrop. Inst._, vol. iv. p. 464.
[162] _Limits of Natural Selection, as applied to Man._
[163] _Bull. de la Soc. d’Anthropologie de Paris_, 1861, ii. p. 501;
1862, iii. p. 192.
[164] _Mem. Anthropol. Soc. London_, vol. i. p. 65.
[165] _Crania Ægyptiaca_, p. 21.
[166] _Vide_ “Physical Characteristics of the Ancient and Modern Celt”:
_Canadian Journal_, vol. vii. p. 369.
[167] _Thesaurus Craniorum_ (Appendix), p. 347.
[168] _Archæologia Scotica_, vol. ii. p. 450.
[169] _Phrenological Development of Robert Burns_, by George Combe, p.
7.
[170] The use of different standards of weights and measures, and of
diverse materials for determining the capacity of the skull in different
countries, greatly complicates the researches of the craniologist. Some
pains have been taken here to bring the various weights and measurements
to a common standard. In attempting to do so in reference to the weight
of brain of Italy’s great poet, the following process was adopted: It
was ascertained by experiment that 912.5 grms. of rice, well shaken
down, occupied the space of 1000 grms. of water. Hence 3.1321 lbs.
rice = 3.4324 water. Multiplying this by 1.04, the s.g. of brain, the
result is the capacity of the skull, viz. 3.5697 lbs., or 57 oz., as
given above. In this and other investigations embodied in the present
paper, I was indebted to the valuable co-operation of my late friend and
colleague, Professor H. H. Croft.
[171] Dr. J. B. Davis, Supp. _Thesaurus Craniorum_, p. 7.
[172] Sir H. Holland’s _Recollections of Past Life_, p. 254.
[173] _The Descent of Man_, vol. i. p. 120. Appleton ed.
[174] _Memoirs of Anthrop. Soc. London_, vol. i. p. 289. _Thesaurus
Craniorum_, p. 49.
[175] Grey’s _Elegy_.
[176] _Mem. Anthropol. Soc. London_, vol. i. p. 465.
[177] _Peabody Museum Annual Report_, 1868, p. 7.
[178] _Journal of Anthropol. Inst._, vol. iii. p. 92.
[179] _Crania Americana_, p. 260.
[180] _Ibid._, p. 132.
[181] _Crania Americana_, p. 261.
[182] Same as Footnote 181.
[183] _Introductory Note, Catalogue_, p. 10.
[184] _Peabody Museum Report_, 1874, p. 10.
[185] _Ibid_. 1871, p. 11.
[186] _Crania Americana_, p. 261.
[187] _Thesaurus Craniorum_, p. 148.
INDEX
Abbeville, bones of extinct mammalia at, 154
Abbot, Dr. Charles C., _Primitive Industry of the Native Races_, quoted,
89, 98;
discoveries at Trenton, 100, 158, 160, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 180
Abercrombie, Dr., 374, 376
Adam, M. Lucien, papers by, 19
Africa, circumnavigation of, in 611 B.C., 9
African hybrid, the, 311
Agassiz, Professor, 20, 150, 216, 375, 376, 385, 390, 396, 399
Akkad, language of the Sumerian class, 27
Alaska, peopled by Eskimo, 66, 234
Aleutian Island, 66, 117
Algonkins, 18, 66, 106, 173, 206, 207, 216, 229, 234, 237, 241, 243, 244,
248, 252, 254, 265, 268, 270, 274, 275, 276, 280, 281, 282, 300, 304,
318
Alleghans, 106, 172, 174, 175
Alligéwi, 103, 172, 215, 251, 253, 267, 269, 273, 287
Alphabet, Indian, 237
Alton, find of flint implements, 97
Andaman Islander, 348, 387
Andastes, 253
Andastogues, 253
Anderdon, Indian reserve, 280, 284, 295, 306
Anne, Queen, gift to the Mohawks, 314
_Antiquitates Americanæ_, 51, 57, 58, 61
Apaches, 175, 229
Arapahoes, 235
Arifrode’s Icelandic Saga, 51
Arnold, Dr., 137
Arrowhead-makers, 224
Artist, the Indian, 193
Ashbrandsson, Biorn, 37
Assiniboins, 120, 121
Athabaska river, 121, 126
Athabascan, language of, 18
Atkinson, Henry George, 353
Atlantis, legend of, 1;
supposed geographical position, 2
Attiwendaronks, 177, 220, 254, 256, 277, 278, 282, 294
Aughey, Professor, 148
Avalldamon, Skræling chief, 69
Aymaras, 387, 389
Aztecs, 20, 103, 238, 268, 287, 387