To John Gliddon, Esq., United States consul at Alexandria, to the Rev. George W. Bridges, and to M. E. Prisse, now in Egypt, I also take this occasion to express my sincere acknowledgments for the practical zeal with which they have aided my researches. I have been enabled to make extensive and satisfactory comparisons by means of nearly six hundred human crania, which form a part of my private anatomical collection. The numbers in brackets refer to corresponding numbers on the skulls themselves, and in my printed catalogue; and will serve as a future test of the accuracy of my observations, which, embracing as they do, such a multitude of details, may require some revision and correction. How far the following observations may assist in solving a problem which, until lately, has been clothed in equal obscurity and interest, is not for me to determine; but I trust they will at least, have the effect of inciting others to researches of a similar nature. --------------------- EGYPTIAN ETHNOGRAPHY. “Vix quidem monitu opus est in tanta seculorum serie qua mos cadavera balsamo condiendi in Ægypto solemnis fecit, inque tam variorum ejus terræ dominorum et incolarum vicissitudine magnam mumias intercedere debere variatatem tam quod ad conditurse variam rationem et materiem; quam quod ad craniorum in mumiis gentilitiam formam et speciem.”—BLUMENBACH, _Decad. Cran._ p. 12. It was remarked fifty years ago by the learned Professor Blumenbach, that a principal requisite for an inquiry such as we now propose, would be “a very careful, technical examination of the skulls of mummies hitherto met with, together with an accurate comparison of these skulls with the monuments.” This is precisely the design I have in view in the following memoir, which I therefore commence by an analysis of the characters of all the crania now in my possession. These may be referred to two of the great races of men, the CAUCASIAN and the NEGRO, although there is a remarkable disparity in the number of each. The Caucasian heads also vary so much among themselves as to present several different types of this race, which may, perhaps, be appropriately grouped under the following designations:— CAUCASIAN RACE. 1. The [1]_Pelasgic Type_. In this division I place those heads which present the finest conformation, as seen in the Caucasian nations of western Asia, and middle and southern Europe. The Pelasgic lineaments are familiar to us in the beautiful models of Grecian art, which are remarkable for the volume of the head in comparison with that of the face, the large facial angle, and the symmetry and delicacy of the whole osteological structure. Plate III., Fig. 6, and Plate X., Fig. 8, are among the many examples of this conformation.