ARTICLE III.

REVIEW OF MORTON'S CRANIA AMERICANA.

(Continued from page 397 of this Journal.)

If, then, there be reason to believe that different parts of the brain manifest different mental faculties, and if the size of the part influence the power of manifestation, the necessity is very evident of taking into consideration the relative proportions of the different parts of the brain, in a physiological inquiry into the connection between the crania of nations and their mental qualities. To illustrate this position, we present exact drawings of two casts from nature: one, figure 1 (next page), is the brain of an American Indian; and the other, figure 2, the brain of an European. Both casts bear evidence of compression or flattening out, to some extent, by the pressure of the plaster; but the European brain is the flatter of the two. We have a cast of the entire head of this American Indian, and it corresponds closely with the form of the brain here represented.

It is obvious that the absolute quantity of brain, (although probably a few ounces less in the American,) might be the same in both; and yet, if different portions manifest different mental powers, the characters of the individuals, and of the nations to which they belonged, (assuming them to be types of the races,) might be exceedingly different. In the American Indian, the anterior lobe, lying between A A and B B, is small, and in the European it is large, in proportion to the middle lobe, lying between B B and C C. In the American Indian, the posterior lobe, lying between C and D, is much smaller than in the European. In the American, the cerebral convolutions on the anterior lobe and upper surface of the brain, are smaller than in the European.

If the anterior lobe manifest the intellectual faculties-the middle lobe, the propensities common to man with the lower animals-and the posterior lobe, the domestic and social affections; and if size influence power of manifestation, the result will be, that in the native American, intellect will be feeble-in the European, strong; in the American, animal propensity will be very great-in the European, more moderate; while in the American, the domestic and social affections will be feeble, aud in the European, powerful. We do not state these as established results; we use the cuts only to illustrate the fact that the native American and the European brains differ VOL. II.-35

widely in the proportions of their different parts;* and the conclusion seems natural, that if different functions be attached to different parts, no investigation can deserve attention which does not embrace the size of the different regions, in so far as this can be ascertained. We have entered more minutely into the reasons why we regard these measurements as important, because we conceive that the distinguishing excellence of Dr. Morton's work consists in his having adopted and followed out this great principle. It appeared necessary to dwell upon it at some length, also, because Professor Tiedemann, in his comparison of the European with the Negro brain, has entirely neglected it, and in consequence has arrived at physiological conclusions which we regard as at variance with the most certain psychological facts, viz. He says that "there is undoubtedly a very close connection between the ABSOLUTE SIZE of the brain and the INTELLECTUAL POWERS AND FUNCTIONS of the mind;" and proceeding on this principle, he compares the weight of the whole brain, as ascertained in upwards of fifty Europeans of different ages and countries, with its weight in several Negroes, examined either by himself or others. He gives extensive tables, showing the weight of the quantity of millet seed necessary to fill Ethiopian, Caucasian, Mongolian, American, and Malay skulls; and adds, that "the cavity of the skull of the Negro, in general, is not smaller than that of the European and other human races.' The inference which he draws is, that intellectually and morally, as well as anatomically, the Negro is naturally on a par with the European; and he contends that the opposite and popular notion is the result of superficial observation, and is true only of certain degraded tribes on the coast of Africa.†

* From inspecting numerous crania of both races, we cannot doubt of the general truth of this proposition.

+ Tiedemann's Essay has been critically examined by Dr. A. Combe, in the Phrenological Journal, (vol. xi.) who shows not only the error of principle committed by the author in assuming the whole brain to be the organ exclusively of the intellectual faculties, but the more striking fact that Tiedemann's own tables refute his own conclusions. Tiedemann's measurements are the following:

The inferiority of the Negro brain in size, is self-evident from these dimensions.

We entertain a great respect for Prof. Tiedemann, but we cannot subscribe to his principle, that the whole brain is the measure of the intellectual faculties; a proposition which assumes that the animal and moral feelings have no seat in this organ. He does not grapple with Dr. Gall's facts or arguments, but writes as if Gall had never existed. Dr. Morton has followed a different course, and we think wisely. He says, "I was from the beginning desirous to introduce into this work a brief chapter on phrenology; but, conscious of my own inability to do justice to the subject, I applied to a professional friend to supply the deficiency. He engaged to do so, and commenced his task with great zeal; but ill health soon obliged him to abandon it, and to seek a distant and more genial climate. Under these circumstances, I resolved to complete the phrenological table, and omit the proposed essay altogether. Early in the present year, however, and just as my work was ready for press, Geo. Combe, Esq. the distinguished phrenologist, arrived in this country; and I seized the occasion to express my wants to that gentleman, who, with great zeal and promptness, agreed to furnish the desired essay, and actually placed the MS. in my hands before he left the city." He adds, that Mr. Combe provided his memoir without having seen a word of the MS. of the work, or even knowing what had been written, and besides, owing to previous arrangement, he was limited to a given number of pages.

We can afford space only to notice Mr. Combe's illustration of the location of the great divisions of the faculties in the different regions of the brain. It is necessary to give this in order to render the true import of several of Dr. Morton's measurements and results intelligible to the reader.

In this figure (Fig. 3), a line drawn from the point A, transversely across the skull, to the same point on the opposite side, would coincide with the posterior margin of the super-orbitary plate: the anterior lobe rests on that plate. The line A B denotes the length of the anterior lobe from back to front, or the portion of brain lying between A A and B B in figures 1 and 2. A, in figure 3, "is located in the middle space between the edge of the suture of the frontal bone and the edge of the squamous suture of the temporal bone, where these approach nearest to each other, on the plane of the superciliary ridge." We have examined a Peruvian skull of the Inca race, a skull of a flat-headed Indian, an Indian skull found near Boston, and compared them with several skulls of the AngloSaxon race, and observe that the line A B is considerably longer in the latter than in the former, and that it corresponds with the length of the anterior lobe, as denoted by the super-orbitar plate. The

All the figures are drawn to the same scale.

point C is the centre of ossification of the parietal bone, correspond. ing to the centre of Cautiousness. The line C D is drawn from C through the centre of ossification in the left side of the frontal bone. This is the centre of Causality. E corresponds with Firmness of the phrenologist. The space D A B is an approximation to the department occupied by the intellectual faculties. D C E contains the organs of the moral sentiments. All the space behind A, and below the line D C F, is devoted to the animal organs. The space ECF contains Self-esteem and Love of Approbation, which may act either with the moral sentiments or animal propensities, according as either predominate. Mr. Combe states that these lines are only approximations to accurate demarcations of the regions, as no modes of rigid ad measurement have yet been discovered.

Mr. Phillips invented an instrument, (which he describes,) by which Dr. Morton and he measured the contents of the space above DC F, in cubic inches, in nearly all the skulls. This is called the coronal region. By deducting the contents of this space from the contents of the whole skull, they give the measurement of the subcoronal region. Mr. Phillips found it impossible to measure D A B, and the space behind A and below D C F, in cubic inches, and Dr M. therefore measured, as an approximation, the whole space co