This is the largest but two of all the posterior chambers of the skull, that Dr. Morton has measured. It testifies of course to the inordinate animality in the savage who possessed it. But on these points, full of interest and instruction as they are, we can dwell no longer, but must hasten toward the close of our review.

Having terminated his measurements and calculations, after toiling through a degree of industry, patience, and labor that, without exaggeration, may be pronounced stupendous, Dr. Morton thus expresses himself, in the language of one who is emboldened by a consciousness of having faithfully endeavored to acquit himself of his duty.

"In conclusion, the author is of the opinion that the facts contained in this work tend to sustain the following propositions: "1st. That the American Race differs essentially from all others, not excepting the Mongolian; nor do the feelle analogies of language, and the more obvious ones in civil and religious institutions and the arts, denote any thing beyond casual or colonial communication with the Asiatic nations; and even these analogies may perhaps be accounted for, as Humboldt has suggested, in the mere coincidence arising from similar wants and impulses in nations inhabiting similar latitudes.

"2d. That the American nations, excepting the Polar tribes, are of one Race and one species, but of two great Families, which resemble each other in physical, but differ in intellectual character.

"3d. That the cranial remains discovered in the mounds, from Peru to Wisconsin, belong to the same race, and probably to the Toltecan family."

Having laid down these propositions, in the form of corollaries deduced from the body of the work, our author offers, on the comparative size of the brains of the five races of men of whom he had treated, the following interesting and important

observations. The facts they embrace are the result of admeasurements; and, as far as they extend, they put at rest the question of the relative magnitude of the Caucasian brain. We feel persuaded that, as soon as they shall be made known to him, even Tiedemann himself and his stubborn adherents, hostile as they are to the doctrines of phrenology, will cease to contend that the brain of the African is equal in size to that of the Caucasian. With equal truth may they contend for identity in the colour of the skin, the figure of the nose, and the entire character of the lips and hair of the two Races. Never were the blindness and deceptiveness of professional prejudice more doggedly manifested. The following are the observations to which we allude.

NOTE.-On the Internal capacity of the Cranium in the different Races of men.-Having subjected the skulls in my possession, and such also as I could obtain from my friends, to the internal capacity measurement already described, I have obtained the following results. The mean of the American Race (omitting a fraction) is repeated here merely to complete the table. The skulls of idiots and of persons under age were of course rejected.

No of Skulls. Mean internal capacity in cubic inches. Largest in the series. Smallest in do.

"Races.

"1. The Caucasians were, with a single exception, derived from the lowest and least educated class of society. It is proper however 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 seventy-five cubic inches."

After a few farther remarks on the Caucasians, Mongolians, Malays, and Ethiopians, which it is not important for us to quote, Dr. Morton subjoins:

"5. 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, viz:

"Toltecan Peruvians collectively,

nations. Mexicans collectively, Barbarous tribes as per table,

76 cubic inches.

79

66

82

66

"An interesting question remains to be solved, viz: the relative proportion of brain in the anterior and posterior chambers of the skull in the different races; an inquiry for which I have hitherto possessed neither sufficient leisure, nor adequate materials."

As connected with this question, and tending toward a solution of it, the following statement is worthy of notice.

On comparing with each other an American and a Caucasian brain, very nearly equal in size, and each being in form about an average of its race, the size of the three lobes was materially different.

In the Caucasian brain, the front lobe, which is the seat of intellect, was much larger than in the American, and its convolutions considerably bolder and more prominent.

In the American brain, the middle lobe, the seat of the animal and the semi-animal propensities, was in an equal degree larger than in the Caucasian, and its convolutions deeper.

And in the Caucasian brain, the posterior lobe, the seat of the domestic and social affections, was much larger, and more strongly marked in its convolutions than in the American.

These facts are in beautiful correspondence with the wellknown differences in the characters of the two races. The Caucasian is superior, according to the indication of his brain, in the intellectual, social, and domestic faculties, and the American in the animal and semi-animal. C. C.

ART. VI.—Elements of Pathological Anatomy, illustrated by numerous engravings. "In Morbis, sive acutis, sive chronicis, viget occultum, per humanas speculationes incomprehensible." Baglivi. By SAMUEL D. GROSS, M.D. Late professor of General Anatomy, Physiology, and Pathological Anatomy, in the Medical Department of the Cincinnati College. Vol. II, 8vo., Boston, 1839. Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb and James B. Dow.

MANY of our brethren must well remember the time, when the only work on Morbid Anatomy within their reach, was the little volume of 250 pages, from the pen of Dr. Matthew Baillie of London, re-printed in Albany in 1795. It was altogether special. Since that date, such has been the progress of this new department, that the general has been added. to the special-systems have been formed, and a new branch of science created. Previously, however, to the re-publication in this country, of Andral's celebrated "Treatise on Pathological Anatomy," eight years ago, the American student had but meagre opportunities for the prosecution of this most interesting and useful study. The advancement which has been made since that work appeared, may be inferred from the fact, that several medical schools have been enriched with professorships of Morbid Anatomy, and, still more, from the fact now before us, that a physician of our own country-a practitioner of the west-has brought out a well-digested work of equal extent, and greater simplicity than Andral's, which, we learn, is every where well received by the profession.

The eminent French pathologist attempted to present the facts of this science, by a method that would disclose the origin of the morbid appearances which he described. Thus he formed the great classes-lesions of circulation-of nutrition, of secretion, of innervation, and of the blood. It is certainly

advantageous to the student to contemplate them by the lights of this system, but we cannot admit that it is without difficulties. Thus it rarely, if ever, happens, that one of the great functions can be disordered, and the others remain unaffected; and in the majority of cases the lesion of structure is manifestly the result of irregularity in more than one of the functions. To select a simple case, the hypertrophy of an organ, although, immediately, the effect of an excessive energy of the nutritive function, is generally attended equally with an excess in its circulation. But to choose a stronger and more complicated example-in induration what do we observe? A chronic inflammation, (lesion of the circulation,) sustained no doubt by a lesion of the innervation, a lesion of the blood, indicated by its siziness, and a lesion of secretion, if not indeed of nutrition. To refer an indurated tissue to any one of these heads is then, evidently, an arbitrary decision.

Perceiving this difficulty, professor Carswell of London, one of the ablest pathological anatomists of the age, in his splendid and expensive "Illustrations of the Elementary Forms of Disease," (he should have said, of deranged structure,) determined to class the morbid appearances according to their affinities. Thus, to cite a single example, he brings together all the cases of softening, however diverse the lesions of function generating them; and then proceeds to enumerate those lesions. This is the plan adopted by professor Gross, and we think it decidedly preferable to that of Andral.

Nevertheless, whatever method of classification the pathological anatomist may adopt, he must always commence with inflammation; for it is undeniable, that of all the modes of morbid action, this one is most prolific in those results, which are the immediate objects of his study.

To this great truth our author is quite alive. Indeed, he