family. They worshipped the sun by keeping an eternal fire; they practised human sacrifices on the death of eminent persons; and they had hereditary distinctions and fixed institutions. They were more pacific than most of the American tribes: they rarely made wars: they placed not their glory in destroying their fellow-creatures: but when once excited to revenge by repeated provocations, their resentment was appeased only by the extermination of their enemies. About a century ago, they were overpowered and massacred or enslaved by the French, and the Natchez as a nation became extinct. This people was addicted to the practice of human sacrifices to a most frightful extent: sometimes more than a hundred victims were immolated at the funeral of a Great Sun or sovereign chief. Among other singular customs of the Natchez, was that of distorting the head by compression so as to raise it to an incredible height: the process is described by Dr. Morton, and he exhibits two figures-a profile and front view of one of these most singular monstrosities.

One skull of the Chetimaches is figured by Dr. M., and it represents a remarkably massive development: the nearly vertical occiput, the great height of the cranium, and the size and strength of the bones of the face, are not surpassed, he says, by any Indian skull he had ever seen. This nation was powerful and warlike, but not numerous : it has disappeared for the last hundred years.

There is an historical sketch of the Seminoles or wanderers, at p. 164 of Dr. M.'s descriptions, and he figures four skulls in illustration of the national head. This is said to be a remarkably tall, well-shaped, and very hardy race; the men are affectionate to their wives and children, hospitable to strangers, and not deficient in justice, gratitude and understanding. Nevertheless, they are charac terized as proud and arrogant, valiant in battle; ambitious of conquest, restless and perpetually exercising their arms; yet magnanimous and merciful to a vanquished enemy, when he submits, and seeks their protection and friendship. In the Seminoles, the head is large, with a lofty though retreating forehead, great breadth between the parietal bones, and remarkable altitude of the whole cranium. The average internal capacity of the Seminole skulls is unusually large, being 87.5 cubic inches, which is a near approach to that of the Caucasian

race.

The Cherokees are a very tall, large, robust race of men; grave and circumspect in their deportment; slow and reserved in their conversation. The arts of peace are more congenial to their disposition than those of war: they are docile, intelligent, and capable of instruction, they possess a written language, and many of them have become agriculturists. Dr. M.'s plate represents the skull of a Cherokee warrior; but there is nothing particular in its conformation: its internal capacity is 82. cubic inches.

We may group the skulls figured on Plates XXVII-XXXIV: they exhibit the crania of an Uchee, a Chippeway, a Menominee, a Miami, an Ottigamie, a Potowatomie, a Naumkeag, and a Lenapé or Delaware-tribes in whom the true Indian head prevails, and the Indian disposition is perfectly displayed. Another group, and the next in order, is that of the Iroquois or Mingoes, possessing the strongest traits of skull and character for which an American savage has ever been distinguished. It comprises crania of the Cayuga, Oneida, Huron, Pawnee, Dacota or Sioux, Osage and Cotonay or Blackfoot tribes.

There are several nations of Indians located on the Columbia river, and they have been denominated the Flat-Heads, from their abominable practice of producing, by mechanical contrivances, a depression of the forehead and the con sequent elongation of the whole head, until the top of the cranium becomes & nearly horizontal plane, in extreme cases. We have a good description and figure, at Dr. M.'s, p. 203-4, by which this strange process is accomplished. This family of Flat-Heads consists of the Chinouks, Klastonis, Killemooks, Clatsaks, Kalapooyahs, Clickitats and Cowalitsks: with good figures of the others: two of the Chinouk and two of the Cowalitsk skulls are exhibited by

Dr. M. in all their grotesque and frightful deformity; by this we are told, the absolute internal capacity of the skull is not diminished, and the intellectual faculties suffer nothing: and why should they? Their organs are not lessened; they are merely pushed into an unnatural shape by displacement. Altogether, the head is large in this group, and the skull capacious. These Flat-Heads are inquisitive and loquacious; not deficient in acuteness of understanding; they have retentive memories; and, though fond of feasts and generally cheerful, they are never gay: they are cunning and cautious, mild and inoffensive, and disposed to friendship; in traffic, they are keen and intelligent, and employ much dexterity in chaffering.

Under a section headed" Skulls from the Tumuli or mounds," Dr. Morton takes occasion to inquire into the geographical distribution of these mounds, their uses, and the race of people by whom they were constructed. His chief step in this inquiry consists in an examination of a series of thirteen skulls, obtained in localities remote from each other, but perfectly authenticated by the places and circumstances in which they were procured. This is the list-one from Circleville, in Ohio; one from the upper Mississippi; one from the Grave Creek, Virginia; one from the Alabama river; one from Tennessee; one from Santa, in Peru; two from the valley of Rimac, in Peru; three from Otumba, in Mexico; one from Golconda, in Illinois; and one from Steubenville, in Ohio. Of this series, the first twelve have the low forehead, high cheek-bones, small facial angle, massive lower jaw, prominent vertex, flat occiput, and rounded head of the American Race: with reference, therefore, to these physical characters and to the geographical distribution of the skulls, Dr. M. considers them as remains of the Toltecan family, and he thinks it probable that all the tribes which erected mounds as a national usage, were branches of the great Toltecan stock. The cranium from Steubenville is set down as having certainly belonged to an individual of the Muskogees, or other barbarous tribe.

Two representations of the skulls of Charibs, from Venezuela and St. Vincent, Occupy the professor's sixty-fourth and sixty-fifth plates. In this people, the head is naturally rounded, but many of the Charib nations practise the flattening process, in such a manner as to depress the frontal bone, and thus to elongate the skull from front to back: the disfigurement thus produced is manifest in the first of these drawings; in the second, it is excessive. This miserable custom becomes yearly less prevalent; and thus, by opportunities not distant, the physiologist will be enabled to contemplate the Charibbean head under its natural configuration. The Charibs were the most ferocious and brutal of the American nations: they were without laws and almost devoid of religious observances: they conducted all their enterprises with extraordinary craftiness: they were suspicious and revengeful, morose and melancholy: their cannibalism was execrable: they looked upon all other men as mere beasts, fit only to be slain and devoured.

On the plates LXVI. LXVII. and LXVIII. we find three figures of the Arancanian skulls: the two first exhibit a side and front view of the cranium of Bampuni, a chief who was slain in battle, in 1835; the last is from the head of Chilicoi, another chief who fell in the same encounter. Bampuni's skull is symmetrical, with the frontal bone lofty but narrow: the whole posterior cranium is full, and the internal capacity not much short of the Caucasian mean. We are struck with the projecting face of Chilicoi and the consequent small facial angle; with the lowness of his forehead, his flattened vertex, and the smailness of his whole head. Dr. Morton's collection contains three Arancanian skulls, and he finds their mean internal capacity to be 79 cubic inches, with an average facial angle barely seventy-five degrees. Hence, the national head is larger than the Peruvian, and somewhat less than the mean of the collective American race. The Arancanians are a robust and muscular people, endowed with extraordinary bodily activity, brave, discreet, cunning to a proverb,

patient in fatigue, enthusiastic in all their undertakings, chivalrous and fond of war as the only source of distinction. They had invented numbers, and possessed the useful arts before their intercourse with Europeans: they are highly susceptible of mental culture, but despise the restraints of civilization; and those of them, who have been educated in the Spanish colonies, embraced the first opportunity to resume the habits of their nation.

As an additional evidence of the unity of race and species in the American nations, Dr. Morton adduces the singular fact-that, from Patagonia to Canada, from ocean to ocean, in the civilized and uncivilized tribes, a peculiar mode of placing the body in sepulture, has been practised from immemorial time. This peculiarity consists in depositing the corpse in a sitting posture, and this is represented most graphically on his sixty-ninth plate, in the figure of a natural mummy. He is aware that this custom is not exclusively American; but the evidences and arguments which support his proposition are abundantly conclusive.

Four genuine skulls of the Esquimaux, or Mongol-Americans, are engraved on the seventieth plate; and, while they show the great and uniform differences between the heads of this people and those of the American Indians, they also serve as a physical (and a mental, as we would add) corroboration of the opinion -that the Esquimaux are the only people possessing Asiatic characteristics on the American continent.

As an Appendix to his Cranioscopy, the doctor introduces an Essay intitled Phrenological Remarks on the relation between the natural talents and dispositions of nations and the development of their brains." It was contributed, at Dr. M.'s request, by Mr. Combe; and, like all this writer's compositions, it is distinguished by elegance, consciseness, and perspicuity, by depth of thought, soundness of judgment, generosity of feeling, and acuteness of ratiocination. Dr. Morton has illustrated this sketch with the engraving of a European skull, which is outlined into the three regions of cerebral organs-the animal, moral and intellectual-corresponding and subservient to the three orders of mental faculties. He has also illustrated the "Phrenological Remarks" with a most elaborate and comprehensive "Table of the Phrenological Measurements" of one hundred skulls, shewing the dimensions of each head and of the several cerebral organs assigned to co-existing faculties of the mind: but, important as this table is, it would have been greatly more valuable if so many of its subjects had not been denaturalized by the barbarous fashion of disfiguring the head with artificial appliances.

Here, we finish our account of Dr. Morton's American Cranioscopy; and by its extent and copiousness, our article will show how highly we have appreciated his classical production: we have studied his views with attention, and examined his doctrines with fairness; and, with perfect sincerity in rising from a task which has afforded unusual gratification, we rejoice in ranking his "CRANIA AMERICANA" in the highest class of transatlantic literature, forseeing distinctly that the Book will ensure for its author the well-earned meed of a Caucasian reputation.

ACUTE HYDROCEPHALUS. By David D. Davis, M.D. M.R.S.L.
Taylor and Walton, 1840. 8vo. pp. 390.

DR. DAVIS thus describes the objects he has in view in publishing this work. "The first is to prove, that acute hydrocephalus is an inflammatory disease; and the second, is to establish the fact that it is curable equally, and by the same means with other diseases of inflammation." Of the first part of the book our analysis will be brief-the fact announced in it being, we believe, already well known to the profession; we will dwell rather more fully upon the treatment recommended by the author, not that this is however the novelty he seems to consider it, but, because any recommendations, from a physician in extensive practice, in reference to a disease so often fatal, cannot be too widely or too fully diffused.

1. THE SYMPTOMS AND DIAGNOSIS.

It cannot be necessary that we should minutely detail the symptoms of a malady, so well known and so frequently described, as acute hydrocephalus. The author has presented his readers with a very vivid and faithful picture of the disease, and we will content ourselves with transcribing some of the signs he considers especially pathognomic or diagnostic. He divides the disease into three stages; viz. the formative or premonitory; the stage of active inflammation; and, the period of collapse.

1. Formative Stage.-This, (the stage of turgescence of Golis,) he thinks especially denoted by the following signs-slight giddiness and confusion upon moving the head; aching pains of the extremities, and at the back of the neck; disturbed sleep; loss of appetite, often attended by vomiting; scanty evacuation by stool and urine-an altered complexion and general appearance-a stumbling gait-irritable and altered temper and disposition-morbid acuteness of the external senses-irregular, but not quick pulse-harsh skin, and loss of strength.

2. Inflammatory Stage.-In some subjects the formative stage is very short, and the inflammatory stage is at once developed, with great fever and convulsion; and this is especially the case in vigorous children. Generally, however, the second stage approaches gradually, after the expiration of several days. The head then becomes very painful and very hot; a distressing sense of pressure over the eyes is present, while they are more and more sensible to light; the countenance becomes yet more altered and the complexion pale; the vomitings are frequent, especially when the body is moved, and a characteristic fætor of the breath is present. A dull pain in the region of the stomach and liver, great subsidence of the abdomen, obstinate constipation, rapid emaciation with accompanying debility, are often prominent symptoms; while, with these, the pulse is slow, intermitting or irregular, and the skin more and more flaccid; the little patient frequently carries its hand to the seat of pain.

3. Stage of Collapse. Of this Dr. Davis considers the following among the most prominent symptoms; a marked dullness of the hitherto preternaturally excited senses; an oblique position in bed; involuntary movements of the extremities, and general restlessness; picking of the ears, mouth and nostrils, the hands being however directed in a trembling and uncertain manner; disordered vision and a convulsive movement of the eyelids; the urine scanty, deep coloured and furnishing a white heavy sediment-the pulse weak and soft, but still irregular-much sighing-very offensive breath-sudden and loud screaming, and grinding of the teeth. After these symptoms have continued from four No. 82.

40

to seven days an illusory calm often occurs, during which, the patient temporarily recovers his senses and natural disposition. This, after probably exciting the hopes of the parents, and of the attendant if inexperienced, soon passes away, and the child gradually sinks. The fatal termination is often accompanied by hectic fever, convulsions, loss of vision, or palsy.

In reference to diagnosis, the author is not sufficiently minute; he contents himself with an accurate abstract of the principal symptoms, and says, that by comparing these with the symptoms of other febrile diseases, the distinctions between them will be easily found. This is all very well in books, wherein we distinguish diseases from each other with great facility, but, at the bed-side, we feel too often the difficulty of the matter, and would be glad enough to avail ourselves of the numerous hints large practical experience ought to furnish us with. There are few practitioners but have been embarrassed some time or another, in distinguishing between hydrocephalus and infantile remittent fever. Again, we are surprised that Dr. Davis, whose practice lies so much among young children, should have passed over, in utter silence, the cases adverted to by Abercrombie, Gooch and Marshall Hall, and termed by the latter hydrencephaloid disease cases, which arising from opposite causes, and requiring entirely opposite treatment, yet often bear a wonderful resemblance to true hydrocephalus.

II. PREDISPOSING CAUSES.

This is a good chapter. Of all the predisposing causes, Dr. Davis thinks difficult dentition to be the most frequent. During this process, the vascular tissues of the brain become overcharged, and more or less drowsiness prevails: this is often followed by pain and heat of the head, and a marked change in the disposition of the child: its eye grows dull, and its appetite is diminished. If the infant be not relieved, by the judicious interference of the medical man, hydrocephalus will probably follow; for, in nine out of ten cases of the disease, occurring in children during the first three years of life, it originates in this

manner.

The practice of feeding infants upon spoon diet, is also a powerfully predisposing cause of diseases of the head. The child will often, on account of the palatable manner in which it is prepared, take this description of food with avidity, and may even seem to thrive upon it very well for a while; but at no very distant time, a week or two, or a month or two, symptoms of deranged digestion manifest themselves, and various organs, but especially the brain, may become affected. The partially nourished system of the child, cannot bear up against the disorders induced by dentition, and it falls a victim to hydrocephalus or some other disease, against which, under a more natural mode of nurture, it might have successfully struggled. Nor does the mischief stop here, for, as the author truly observes, even supposing that the child escapes all the mischances of infancy, yet is its constitution, long after, and perhaps permanently, enfeebled and it is always much more liable than the robust to the supervention of various congestive and inflammatory affections.

Dr. Davis especially deprecates the attempts, often made by many mothers, to bring up their children upon arrow-root, which they think supplies a nourishment epual to their own milk. Allowing it as an auxiliary to the mother's milk, during the first few weeks, he insists upon the impropriety of attempting to nourish a child entirely upon it, affording, as it does, such an inefficient degree of support.

Among other predisposing causes may be enumerated; certain peculiarities of temperament, and physical conditions of the brain, and the axanthematous and gastric fevers of infancy. An obstructed or inflammatory condition of the viscera of the cavities of the abdomen and chest predispose in like manner: